Michelle Malkin, incensed by the presence of the children engaging in SCHIP advocacy, has now gone the extra mile:
Update 2:50pm Eastern: I just returned from a visit to Frost’s commercial property near Patterson Park in Baltimore. It’s a modest place. Talked to one of the tenants, Mike Reilly, who is a talented welder. He said he had known the Frosts for 10 years. Business is good, he told me, though he characterized Frost as “struggling.” Reilly was an outspoken advocate for socialized health care without any means-testing whatsoever and an insistent critic of the Iraq war. Despite all that, he did agree with me that going without health insurance is often a matter of choice and a matter of priorities. Or maybe we were speaking two different languages.
I also passed by the Frosts’ rowhouse. There was an “01 – 20 -09″ bumper sticker plastered on the door and a newer model GMC Suburban parked directly in front of the house. I’ve seen guesstimates of the house’s worth in the $400,000 plus range. Those are high.
Citizen journalists, at your doorstep. Maybe she can get some of her flunkies at Hot Air to sit with binoculars and see what they have for dinner. Better not be government cheese, or the SHIT is going to hit the fan.
The Malkin wing of the current Republican party makes me fucking sick.
*** Update ***
An update from the truth detector:
A word for all the faux outraged leftists accusing conservative bloggers of waging a “smear campaign:” Asking questions and subjecting political anecdotes to scrutiny are what journalists should be doing.
When a family and Democrat political leaders drag a child down to Washington at 6 in the morning to read a script written by Senate Democrat staffers on a crusade to overturn a presidential veto, someone might have questions about the family’s claims. The newspapers don’t want to do their jobs. The vacuum is being filled.
Yes- the national void of “NOT HAVING WINGNUTS EYEBALL YOUR HOME AND DETERMINE IF YOU SHOULD RECEIVE GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE” has now been filled. Thank you for fulfilling that vital role in our national discourse.
Idiot.
You know what grates at me- didn’t she, for one minute, think- “Gee- this is kind of creepy and like that lunatic Mike Stark who stalked O”Reilly. Maybe I should call the Frosts and try to arrange an interview, rather than do drive-bys of their house using information dug up by Freepers?”
Because that is what a normal, sane person would have done. I think I answered my own question.
*** Update #2 ***
Before the site is overun with Malkinites offering pithy rejoinders such as calling us socialists and libtards, let me point out my shock is not a defense of the SCHIP program, as personally, I oppose this incremental expansion. I am tired of incremental growth of government. I feel the same way about this that I felt about the hideous Prescription Drug Plan- it is going to end up costing MUCH, MUCH more than advertised. Most of my readers and commenters would probably disagree with me, but I don’t like the program, despite its allegedly noble purpose. I would prefer a radical overhaul of the medical system rather than this incrementalism.
Regardless, this is not about the SCHIP program. This is about the base instincts of the modern right, and the attempts to intimidate and smear and label it as “investigating.” I don’t have a problem with opposing SCHIP, I don’t have a problem with opposing legislation by anecdote (which is why I, unlike Michelle, hated the Schiavo legislation). I do have a problem with publishing a desperate family’s financial information, scouring pictures of their kitchen to determine the value of their appliances, and stalking their abode. Even if they were used at a press conference by Democrats.
What Michelle has done here is creepy and weird and wrong.
If you can’t figure out the difference, Malkin’s site is that-a-way.
*** Update ***
DougJ
This is really, really fucked up.
Zifnab
Did she bother to pick through their trash? Read their mail? Did she follow their kids to school?
I don’t know who Malkin thinks she is, but she’s going to have to get a bit more aggressive if she wants to make it as a real
stalkerjournalist.capelza
Malkin..we stalk them so you don’t have to!
KCinDC
Wait, aren’t conservatives supposed to pretend they’re in favor of programs that allow poor children to attend private schools?
Face
I never thought I’d be stunned by the stuff this bitch says and does, but this physically makes me ill.
Tomorrow will be an expose on the cost of the clothes each child wears to school (better not be Nikes!) and how they could save lots of money if the wife tossed her OrthoTriCyclin and just took it on the chin instead.
capelza
Hey, John..look! You’re an faux outraged leftist!
Jake
Nice to see Malkin avoids hysterical hyperbole as assiduously as she avoids pom-poms.
The WingBrigade doesn’t quite know where to go with this one. They want to come down hard on people who support CHIP but they don’t want to go too hard after the kids, but these are kids of people who are in collusion with Democrats…Arrrgh, help! Tell me who to hate!
After spending a little too much time on the Frost’s kids and where they go to school (creepy? just a tad) and deciding that scholarships don’t exist, they finally settle on the left-wingers hurting children by trying to get them health care coverage.
Who needs spoof?
DougJ
Do Republicans understand how means testing works? The government checks if your income is below a certain level. They don’t go snooping around your apartment looking for anti-Bush bumperstickers.
These people are loons. I’m actually surprised by this. I didn’t know so many on the right were so far gone.
whippoorwill
I read abut this yesterday. What a sorry bunch of flaming shitasses. They are like maggots devouring a corpse except their victims are still alive. Yesterday, some idiot Freeper first posted on this and had even come up with photos of these people’s kitchen, while analyzing the cost of each appliance and the counter tops. I guess the neighbors saying they were “struggling” wasn’t good enough to satisfy Malkin’s bloodlust, so she had to go for the little liberal brat’s jugular. May she and all her coven rot in hell.
sparky
Too bad Malkin didn’t live in East Germany; she’d have been a model Stasi informant.
Oh, and by the way, attacking the speaker isn’t journalism no matter how many times you claim it is.
“Morning in America” has curdled into malice at midnight.
Billy K
This is not about reporting or SCHIP or “truth.” This is about intimidating people into keeping quiet.
Ted
None of this matters. FoxNews will still employ her to substitute for Orally when he’s off work. Whenever this happens, she has the biggest audience of anyone on all of cable. Think about that for a moment.
KC
What I have difficulty believing, is that credible journalists would take their p’s and q’s from the rightwing smear machine on this issue. Just because a group of assholes screams, doesn’t mean you should listen to their bullshit. If I start seeing a round of stories about this boy and his so-called “fraudulent” life circumstances–as if the whole issue isn’t to distract from the president’s veto of a useful and pragmatic children’s health insurance program–I’ll explode.
Ted
I can’t believe they’re going full-on Beauchamp on this. Well, I can, but I still can’t…
jnfr
Heaven forbid we should do anything to help ordinary middle class families, many of whom are struggling with health care costs these days. If you’re destitute, you’re a welfare queen; if you’re middle class, you should suck it up and let your kids suffer. They only love the really rich, who are their masters.
Chris Johnson
Geez, my own house is technically worth about $130K, but I earn maybe 40K a year and can’t afford health care except through socialistic governmental programs.
I wouldn’t have it at all if not for months and years spent trying to work the heck out of the system, got it through THREE different agencies (Rural Development for a super long term fixed loan, HUD for Section 8 homeownership program, a local land trust which actually OWNS the land I’m on and sets a cap on the max I can get if I sell).
There just aren’t any decent $10K houses anymore, you know? I’d sure be interested to know whether that oooh impressive 400K-looking house was really worth that, or whether it’s actually not- or whether owning it means those people are going to be hosed so hard they can’t eat much less have health care.
I can tell you one thing: you DON’T cheap out on the kid’s clothes or food or school, so that means less than you’d think.
Andrew
From Think Progress:
Fuck you, Malkin. You deserve to get cancer and lose your health insurance and die a fucking horrible death.
capelza
Because, even though she is a reprehensible human being, she is “hot”. If she wasn’t as cute as she is, and yeah, she is, she wouldn’t have nearly as many mouth breathers hanging on her every word. And she and Fox know this. Witness her cheerleading video.
Jake
Christ do these people know how stupid they sound? Journalists ask questions, conduct research, receive answers, verify the answers and then print a fucking story. This is not journalism. It is at best speculation:
I see no questions.
And what a surprise, I see no research. I guess they’re too busy smooshing their noses against these people’s windows to go to the courthouse and do a check or even run the address through one of the many of on-line websites that will give you the approximate value of the home.
Fine, they’re pathetic and they’ll never know how pathetic they are. But I invite you all to consider the amount of OUTRAGE (TM) the Malkins of the world would generate if a left-leaning blog pulled a stunt like this.
Thank god I am not a Yank
Child welfare is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
Fuck you! you loonie lefties. You want to give your money to support some kids whose parents can’t afford them do so. But keep your fucking hands off my wallet.
I pay for my kids, I do not take any fucking welfare and Isure as hell make sure I buy insurance and can pay for my kids.
All you do is feel morally superior because you feel the pain and then steal from someone else to make reparations. Charity does not begin at home for you at all.
Sakura
So what if the family lied about being too poor to afford health insurance. Damn truth, justice and the American way. I just want socialized health care.
Edward
Yeah we should just hand our money over to the compasionate left. They will redistribute our money in the name of compassion (and votes) and how dare you question them.
KC
The SCHIP program was started to aid families who can’t qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private coverage. So, one can work, own a business, and have a family, but still qualify for SCHIP if they make too much for Medicaid and can’t afford or are declined private coverage. This appears to be the case with the Frosts. So, it seems pretty clear to me, all the screaming is just that–screaming. And, it’s all being done to distract from the President’s veto and probably to encourage Republican Congressmen to sustain it.
capelza
Welcome, Edward, Sakura, and Thank god I am not a Yank.
Did ya’ll catch a ride together on the interent short bus?
Ted
Fine. Then can I have my Iraq/Bush vanity war money back? I didn’t approve of that. You may continue to contribute to it with your income, of course.
May you suffer a terrible bout of economic hardships, leading you to the brink of homelessness and illness, so that we may remind you of quotes like these when your ass comes begging for assistance.
Andrew
Sakura, go fuck yourself with a spiked mace you half-wit child-hating piece of crap.
Learn to read.
Andrew
I don’t want Ed to feel left out either. Best wishes to your special ed teacher. I’m impressed that she managed to get you up to speed on using a computer. That’s quite a lot of progress given your limited mental capacity.
Chris Johnson
I suppose all that still falls into the trap of justifying government assistance by claiming poverty and distress, which is a funny assumption.
When I think about it, if I WAS middle-class enough that I was genuinely comfortable and had serious assets, would I deserve to still be getting serious help and support from the government when I’m wealthy…
or do you only deserve that if you’re an armed mercenary gunning down Iraqis with no accountability?
I changed my mind. I deserve bourgeois comforts MORE than civilian mercenaries, whether I am wealthy or not. I’m not, but if I was and a billion dollars was going to go either to giving me goodies or giving Blackwater and Halliburton goodies, I would say I should get them EVEN IF I didn’t need them.
Sure is a lot of money flying around to SOME places while we argue about whether doctors for children should be free…
sparky
Lookie! Visitors!
Hi guys!
Thank god: So, all poor people should die? No problemo! Oh, and don’t forget to pay back all those tax deductions, including the actual costs of your health insurance, K?
Sakura: Dude, everybody lies. And we’re all socialists. Have you checked under your bed? No? Then check your neighbors–all of them. Can’t be sure, after all!
Ted
These people would with-hold insulin from a diabetic with no money.
zzyzx
Hey! Park School! That’s my high school! Cool.
I have nothing else to add to this thread other than to notice that the tuition is pretty expensive these days.
sparky
Thankfully, KBR and Blackwater don’t have diabetes. Whew!
HarryStar
Here’s the kicker though….
How many people here, complaining that the GOVERNMENT should do something, are going to write a check to help these people out? HHHMMM???? Just $100 from each of you would go a long way???
The reason that the government should stay out of HealthCare is that it is such a huge step backwards.
Don’t get me wrong, I feel bad for them obviously. That being said, I have to pay $1,342 each month for my own Health Insurance. With that, “I” do not want the Government to get involved in Health Care. Moreso, I want them to GET OUT of every Socialist system that THEY keep screwing up.
For those who WANT the Goverment to take over…”Be careful what you wish for”. I could list the laundry list of those things that the Government does OH SO WELL but there really isn’t ONE THING that they do well in.
P.S. Remember the whole fiasco that happened at Walter Reed Hospital? Expect more of that in the future because that’s what you’re going to end up with.
rawshark
This is nothing if not a
Malkin is simply doing her patriotic duty by helping her party ensure that the federal gov’t doesn’t make any move in the direction of socialized medicine.
capelza
Stalking IS patriotic..in Wingnut world!
No1Dad
“Idiot.”
Man…. why so much personal abuse? Sheesh. Whether or not one agrees with Malkin, surely we dont need to sink the level of name-calling. It’s so childish and hateful. Let’s have a rational debate rather than a poo flinging contest.
Zifnab
No no no. They don’t have anything against poor people. Why? Because poor people don’t actually exist. That’s right, folks. The Frosts are just another example of the decident slacker liberal elites farming off the hard working backs of the middle class. They’ve got four kids, after all. Four! Do you have any idea how expensive it costs for me to buy a kid these days? And they’ve got four of them.
And they’ve got an SUV, and granite counter-tops, and a BUMPER STICKER! OMG! I wish I had that kind of cash, but I’m too busy working my ass off in some podunk Red State where I make less than minimum wage and pay a billion dollars and hour for minimum coverage. But I don’t complain. If I break my foot, I just naw it off at the ankle and keep on trucking. There’s your health care.
The Frosts are clearly way richer than I am, and yet they are getting luxurious government hand-outs that I either A) am too conservative to indulge in myself, B) don’t know how to acquire on my own, or C) too busy writing anti-communist manifestos to bother with. If we get rid of SCHIP, all these problems go away. And if the Frosts would just quit their home business, go back to college, get an advanced degree, obtain a job at a large corporation, work their ways up the ladder to management positions, and retire, they will have more than enough money to support themselves and their children.
rawshark
‘our’ money? Could you elaborate?
Chris Johnson
Holy crap man, I wish I could be certain to GROSS that much each month, and I have to feed myself, pay my very reasonable mortgage, and pay TAXES out of that.
Who the hell do YOU work for? I have to run my own business, and you’re frothingly insane if you think I’m budgeting $1,342 a month for HEALTH INSURANCE. Hell, you’re crazy if you think that’s any kind of a reasonable figure, unless you’re in a damn iron lung…
I’ll gladly take socialist medicine fiascos over what you’re proposing because the alternative is for me still to be gambling, but rather than gambling that it won’t be like Walter Reed, I’ll be gambling that I NEVER GET SICK OR HURT AT ALL. I’m facing exactly that ‘cos I’m heading into the no-man’s-land of people who are now earning enough to not be destitute all the time, and if there aren’t any health options that I’ll be able to swing, I WILL have none at all…
Seriously, how are you able to justify a health insurance bill that high? What on earth do you earn that you shrug this off so blithely?
capelza
Okay..here’s the debate: Is stalking a family icky or not?
Andrew
Whoops. Something didn’t quite work there.
You want to have a rational debate about stalking and harrassing a family?
Andrew
Zifnab, it’s even more simple than that. They just have to sell one of their children to organ merchants in the far east and they’ll be rolling in cash.
Ted
How does one have a ‘rational debate’ with that shrieking wraith Malkin? ;)
Tsulagi
I sure hope the Malkinettes bring their pom poms so we can see some true patriots in action.
HarryStar
I work for myself out on Long Island in New York with a wife and 3 children.
I would be more than happy to give you the other rates that are offered but they’re just as high. The “Hell, you’re crazy if you think that’s any kind of a reasonable figure” comes from lack of knowledge. I’d be more than happy to listen to any rates that you have out there!!!
I’m not even going to tell you that property taxes for 1/2 o an acre is nearly $4,500 per year either.
Zifnab
I’m sorry John, but you’re asking us to give up baby steps so we can grow wings and fly. Might as well show disdain for Social Security and suggest that we instead reworked the entire economy.
SCHIP is undoubtedly a patchwork solution to a widespread problem, but its the only solution that can make it through the gauntlet of Kucinich socialists on the left and Norquistian bathtub downers on the right. The Jeffersonian Democracy was never meant to give us the best solution, it was merely meant to give us the solution that a majority of the people could agree on. You’ll see a radical overhaul of the medical system right after you see every billion dollar insurance company go belly up – ie. after the current medical system status quo runs out of lobbyists.
Beady Eye Guy
Just because the house is “valued” at $400K does not mean they could sell it for cash right now. Even if they could, they’d make a lot less.
Whose to say they didn’t take an equity loan to pay for things they need? IF they did, they could be in the hole especially if housing has depreciated in their market.
If Michelle Malkin and her scum come to my house, I promise they won’t like me very much. I also would sue them for trespassing, slander, libel and anything else my lawyer can dig up. I am a private citizen and just because she may not like my politics does not give her the right to spy on me and intimidate my friends and family.
Screw her.
Beady Eye Guy
Harry Star,
You would have the option to continue paying for your own insurance. Nobody is advocating banning all private insurance policies. Even major American Corporations are asking the guvmint to do this.
If Sweden and Norway can make it work and STILL have some of the most productive corporations and workers in the world, for God sakes we can do it too.
Oh, and I am a right leaning independent who, like our host, is fed up with this crap that goes on in the formerly independent minded party of Lincoln, Roosevelt (teddy) and Goldwater.
sparky
Gee, John, now you have to spoil everyone’s fun with an “explanation”! If these kinds of investigations were good enough for Roy Cohn, why aren’t they good enough for Michelle and our NATION? I must–sadly–conclude that because you seem to think otherwise you must still be an islamofascist deadender brain-fevered by BDS. Too bad you can’t be reasonable about CITIZENS doing their JOBS.
Chris Johnson
Enough snark, I’d still like to know how these guys would be expected to come up with more than $1000 monthly for health insurance if they’re grossing $50K a year (to loosely sling around figures sitting in this thread).
I can believe that the family paid $55K for the house if it was in a crappy neighborhood, that’s real estate for you. It’s possible that their valuation is much lower than you think if that’s the case. In a world with Home Depot you can’t always trust that the countertops are an indication of great wealth, maybe they’re just hardworking decorators, and paint hides a multitude of sins.
My own house was around $70K and it’s within what I can handle with self-employment income of maybe $40K a year, and I sure as hell can’t tack a $1000 health insurance bill onto that.
p.lukasiak
Its like she’s actually trying to win WPITW…
John Cole
I don’t disagree with you to some extent, but i really don’t care about the actual program right now. As far as I am concerned, the current GOP lost the right to argue about this crap when they passed the prescription drug plan (AKA, the handout to drug companies). That, and the fact that this amounts to what- a week in Iraq? It is just hard to credibly oppose these things, even on principled grounds, right now.
What bothers me is this crazy and instinctive need to destroy people.
Robert Johnston
Fortunately Maryland has criminal stalking statutes covering exactly this kind of behavior. I, for one, can’t wait to see Malkin’s mug shot.
HarryStar
Just as an FYI, both of those countries are among THE HIGHEST taxed SOCIALIST countries on the world, with nearly 50 cents of every dollar going towards the government.
I’m not sure that you’d want to start shelling out even more money to the Federal Government.
Those “leaning right” like myself DO NOT want the Government involved!!!! Again, show me a good government program that works and….well, just show me one that’s flourishing!!!!!
JUST ONE.
P.S. I prefer your 3 choices on the leaning of the right but I’d also include Jefferson as well!! :-)
Zifnab
Oh, well no freak’n wonder. New York is ridiculously overpriced. But then getting paid $45k / year in New York is like living below the poverty line out west. I think that’s what many of people miss in this debate. $45k / year in Baltimore is not the same as $45k / year in Topeka or San Antonio.
Zifnab
It’s because they can’t oppose SCHIP, even on principle, that they have to resort to this kind of dumpster diving. If the Republican Party had any integrity left, they’d be using it. But its hard to ask for an extra $189 billion for Iraq while opposing another $35 billion for sick children. The only argument left to fall back on is, “Those kids don’t really need the money.” So that’s the hand they’ll play, even if they don’t have the cards to back it up.
Chris Johnson
Wow, OK, I’m listening. I am SO not on Long Island. I’m in a small town in Vermont and property taxes are a quarter of what you’re paying.
I’m paying about $30 a month water and sewer- maybe $80-150 electricity a month. About $100 a month internet and phone, no long distance deal, that’s gonna be 5 cents a minute.
Mortgage is going to be around $660 max: it can be less, I’ve put some serious effort into knowing what’s out there assistance-wise. If I won the lottery (which I don’t play) and was a millionare it would go immediately to the $660 max. That’s including escrow for taxes and home insurance, which is minimal.
It’s possible the Frost’s situation bears more of a resemblance to mine than yours, particularly if they qualify for the tuition breaks they’re getting. When I was married I learned firsthand about our local public schools, and in fact the kid went to a different district because my town is so seamy that its schools are like inner-city schools: no money, lots of drugs, etc. When you’re looking at that, you come up with alternate schools, period, no matter what you have to do.
Does your situation in Long Island scale ALL the expenses up that much?
Oh, and if my neighborhood got gentrified and my house was valued at $400,000, and I sold it, I would get- $70K. Land Trust agreement allowing me to buy it at a lowered price ($30K from the land trust) in exchange for them owning the actual land the house is on, and a covenant prohibiting me from profiting more than 10% or something on any future sale. I wonder if the Frosts cut some kind of deal like that. I believe that home ownership is a good springboard to get into stuff like, say, commercial property ownership… it seems to me like they’re just smart and determined, not wicked socialist plunderers. Sometimes you just have to get into a situation to be able to get more of it. Real estate is so often about assuming debt, why would anybody assume this $170K commercial property is paid off?
whippoorwill
I used to see it your way No1Dad, but after viewing one my heroes Max Cleland in a campaign add next to Osama Bin Laden, I changed my mind and decided these people have no soul and no conscience and will do or say anything to win.
They choose the field of political battle which general runs in the sewer of human interaction. You can either stand aside and let them have their way or fight them where they live.
If you get a little soiled in the process you can shower off once their hateful ideology has been beaten and cast upon the ash heap of history.
HarryStar
Yes, and it’s to support many government programs
Quiddity
various hi-jinks by the right bother me, but I often forget them over time. Not so with this incident.
rawshark
After seven years of government run by Bush appointees that question is a touch unfair.
Is that a flat tax?
Why the uppercase? Do some words scare you? Its like you’re highlighting buzzwords or something.
jpe
Anyone who isn’t a scumbag saw the combination of school and income and thought, “good for them – they’ve got scholarships,” as opposed to “OHMYGOD THEY’RE CHEATING ON THEIR TAXES!!!!”
Eesh.
HarryStar
Pretty much so. The $4,000 in taxes is actually low. A friend in the next town over pays $10,000. Just as an FYI, I am the middle class. My house, when purchased in 1994 was $135,000. It’s now almost $450,000. 3 Bedrooms, kitchen, 1 bathroom. Your “basic” house.
I often laugh at times when somebody comes out with “a plan” and the minimum on salaries is $80,000 (let’s just say). That’s the poverty/minimum wage to live out on Long Island.
RSA
Bush and his cronies object, at least partly, to the increase in cost: $35 billion. That’s a little more than 1% of the 2008 federal budget of $3 trillion (and that’s the whole SCHIP deal, not just the addition that the Democrats want). It just seems a stupid stand for Bush to be taking. He’s got a great big Iraqi beam in his eye.
jnfr
Medicare users have the highest satisfaction rate of all health care users in the country. Medicare’s overhead is miniscule compared to that of for-profit health care companies.
Walter Reed became a mess under incompetent Republican administration. When you put people in charge who don’t believe in running government well (because they don’t believe in government, other than as a means to enrich their friends), that’s what you get.
rawshark
But how much goes to ‘government programs’ (I assume you mean entitlement programs) and how much goes to what is needed to run such a massive city? If you’re just going to spout slogans you won’t have any fun here.
HarryStar
Yes..yes they do. HIGHEST TAXES and SOCIALISM both scare me.
The United States WAS NOT (notice the uppercase) designed to be a Socialist Country, where the government is in charge of everything. The problem that I have is that many on the left want it to be run that way and God help us all if things continue in the same way.
montysano
Yes, yes… teddible situation in those countries, old chap, just teddible. Both rank near the top in life expectancy and literacy, near the bottom for infant mortality. They enjoy a world-class infrastructure, and their kids go to college if… well, if they qualify for college. Both countries are having a national conversation about global warming and the environment, and both are doing something about it. Yes, indeed, mustn’t let such a nightmare occur here.
John, I hear our concerns about SCHIP, and agree to a degree: it’s not that I’m against govt programs, just against govt programs done badly, like the corporate clusterf**k Medicaid drug program that you mentioned.
HarryStar
Oh please, do not use the Bush years. Use whatever government program in the history of the United States!!!
Pick one, just anyone that’s flourishing with the government in charge of it.
Krista
Yep. They say the middle-class is disappearing and it’s for a reason. You make just a little too much to qualify for any sort of programming, but you don’t make enough to actually keep up with the cost of living.
It really just boggles the mind — perhaps I’m obtuse, but I just do not understand why there cannot be a basic, government-funded health coverage for EVERYBODY, for acute health care need, with the option to buy private insurance to cover stuff like medical equipment, eye care, chiropractic, physio, etc. Why do you guys make it so complicated???
Tsulagi
That right is DOA after their prescription bill. DeLay and others pushing it lied to and extorted their own party members to ram that one through. Federal offense to pay less than retail for your pills. $500B to a trillion that is nothing more than a reverse campaign contribution to pharmaceuticals and insurance carriers.
And now they’re conservatives? LOL. Politically brilliant too. Denying health coverage to children.
Hey, maybe some really smart Republican can attach an amendment to the SCHIP bill against children preying on naive Pub congressmen. Call it the Foley rider. They’re smart, strong Bush conservatives like that
Tim F.
Walter Reed became a mess because moron Bushies moved to privatize important services without checking to see whether the reduced staffing and skill level could still accomplish the mission. It’s Republican market failure in a microcosm.
By the very late 90’s the VA offered model care at a vastly lower overhead than private insurers do. Then Bush FEMA’d it and Walter Reed becomes a third world country. If anything it proves the danger of privatising first and thinking second.
montysano
I didn’t take time for the Google, but I believe that the $35B is spread over a number of years, not just one year. So the “1% of annual budget” would not be accurate; it’s far less.
g-rant
Conservatives don’t really understand what “socialism” means, do they?
Jay B.
My God Harry,
It’s mighty butch of you to roll the dice on private insurance at usury rates to protect your family from the ravages of, from what I’m reading, military hospitals, but your Bircher howls of mean ol’ government kind of misses the larger point: American health care sucks. Whatever else it might be, it’s the opposite of “care” and whatever else it might be, it’s still more expensive and worse than comparable countries’ “socialized” medicine.
For example, did you know that England has much better care at 40 percent the cost of the American system? Did you know that the current unaffordable system is doubly costly because so many people can’t afford preventive care that they wait until they can longer wait and get emergency care, which is way, way more expensive?
Just as an FYI, both of those countries are among THE HIGHEST taxed SOCIALIST countries on the world, with nearly 50 cents of every dollar going towards the government.
Really? Garsh, that’s the first I’ve heard of it. That said, Swedes live longer and have a better standard of living than Americans — while having a better run health care system. Your distrust of the government isn’t completely unwarranted — but your faith in the ‘free market’ of health care is suicidal.
montysano
A few things:
– Says who?
– I haven’t seen a true Socialist running around for years. Like “Liberal” and “terrorist”, the word has been abused until it’s lost all meaning;
– Republicans now appear to be the party of Big Government, or so those damned facts indicate.
Chris Johnson
Looks like you and me have the same house, HarryStar :D
It sounds like the Frosts have a house valuation closer to yours, especially if it was bought for $55K (perhaps in a state of disrepair).
New York is definitely ‘valuation hell’ and a lot of that is simply because the cost of everything seems to explode when you cram people together so tightly. You can say it’s overtaxed if you like but I suspect you’re on the edge of chaos already, and that many things could break down completely if you tried to cut way back on the budgets and taxes… for one thing, you’d quickly be living in ‘Road Warrior’ world, you’d see a lot more armed combat in your day-to-day life. That even applies to the entitlement programs- when huge quantities of people are starving and destitute, you CAN’T just take away all their unearned money and let them starve and die. They’re intelligent and will be desperate, they’ll come after you. Welfare is another form of insurance, it’s a relatively cheap way not to be murdered for your wristwatch… that’s pretty cynical, but whatever. If you think rotten people will magically go away if you starve them, look at Malkin’s site and consider how many rotten people there are even among the relatively wealthy.
As for health insurance (and not welfare)- it IS all about overhead. Corporate medicine is strangling in its overhead, and I really don’t trust that tort reform is gonna fix that. It’s like assuming that if you remove all oversight from medicine, everybody gets ponies and the cost of everything will go way down. It doesn’t seem that removing all oversight from, say, Iraq reconstruction has caused the costs of everything to go down, so why would removing oversight from medicine cause ANY costs to go down?
Looks like a more structural repair is in order, not arranging to remove oversight via tort reform and leaving it entirely corporate and unanswerable…
Tim F.
I would be fascinated to hear Harry’s market-based solution for the millions of Americans who cannot get insurance at any cost. Insurance companies won’t even deliver you a quote if you fall in certain categories or have certain preexisting conditions and don’t qualify for any group plan.
But then I guess that Harry’s got his so everything is OK.
montysano
Sorry, I mispelled Socialist: obviously, it’s SOCIALIST!@!1
Jay B.
Use whatever government program in the history of the United States — Pick one, just anyone that’s flourishing with the government in charge of it.
Wow. Just…wow. Let’s see, Social Security, the GI Bill, WiC, the current S-CHIP, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the innovations that came from NASA research have revolutionized the way we live, Pell Grants, Medicare (which has literally saved million of lives) — these are just some of the federal programs which have helped you or your parents or this country in manifest ways.
State and local governments
By the way, you pay a ton of taxes, but here’s a mindbender: If you move to places where you will pay less taxes, you will also most likely get paid less, have worse public services (like education) and will have fewer job opportunities. Amazing, ain’t it?
Beady Eye Guy
Harry,
I agree we weren’t designed to be socialist but we weren’t designed to not help others either.
Charity doesn’t cut it anymore. The rich just don’t give to charity (I have some factoid someplace but I don’t want to look for it right now). I believe America can have safety nets for it’s citizens as long as there are levers to get these people working/productive again. I don’t believe in handouts, but I do believe in finding ways to keep America going.
I am a right leaning independent and if you are worried about big government why not be scared of the guy in the WH right now?
I believe if we insist on having anti-abortion on the platform, I ask those folks why be against a child healthcare program funded by a cigarette tax? Do children only matter when in the womb? Why do these people insist on more unwanted kids to clog the system and cost the guvmint more money when we can allow a woman to choose? It should be between her and God NOT the guvmint. Now, the guvmint shouldn’t be paying for it though…
The wackiness of the right makes some of these programs not look so bad. That is the scary part of this President.
Job training, education, health and the like are what civilized and enlightened countries offer their people. If my taxes actually paid for those things and not unwanted wars that we had no business fighting then we could still have these things AND the lowest tax rate in the world.
No more guvmint handouts to corporations.
No more tax cuts for the top 1%.
No more slush funds for cronies (Dem or GOP).
If we have free markets, why not trust them? Last time I checked the FCC wants to ease ownership rules for media AGAIN. Why? Why do they take bids for government contracts anymore? I could rant on about this all day and won’t…just saying is all.
Jay B.
Use whatever government program in the history of the United States — Pick one, just anyone that’s flourishing with the government in charge of it.
Wow. Just…wow. Let’s see, Social Security, the GI Bill, WiC, the current S-CHIP, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the innovations that came from NASA research have revolutionized the way we live, Pell Grants, Medicare (which has literally saved million of lives) — these are just some of the federal programs which have helped you or your parents or this country in manifest ways.
State and local governments also have many excellent programs.
By the way, you pay a ton of taxes, but here’s a mindbender: If you move to places where you will pay less taxes, you will also most likely get paid less, have worse public services (like education) and will have fewer job opportunities. Amazing, ain’t it?
Chris Johnson
Oh yes you have! Our Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders, is a Socialist! We’ve had him in Congress for years and years!
Funny how in a socialist state like Vermont my property taxes are that much less than Harry’s…
Even funnier that according to Tim (and I believe him, I’ve read about this before), the Walter Reed disaster is not from socialized medicine, but the polar opposite, privatized medicine with zero oversight…
You know, when you look at facts like that all day it really tends to make all the ‘OMG SOCIALISTS BAD’ ranting seem not wholly believable. It’s all oh noes, socialist commies! government bad! And then when you see the results of heavy privatization like with Walter Reed- point of interest, is Long Island very socialist in nature?- you see that it’s a freaking disaster area and you go HMMMMM, that wasn’t exactly what I was told would happen!
Must be people failing conservatism again. Oh snap!
Beady Eye Guy
BTW – If Bush did care about the economy and wanted to help the most taxed folks in the land, why did he not give a middle class tax cut?
I get hit with that useless Alt Min Tax every freaking year while the super rich get to not pay a dime. The middle class are how this country succeeds. I wish some would remember that.
Bubblegum Tate
Hey, remember when Jesus’ General published a map of the area of Malkin’s house at the time (without giving out the address, of course, much less actually snooping) and the Malkintents and various other right-wing flying monkeys went apeshit and claimed this was putting Her Royal Highness at risk and blah blah blah, and JG, in a show of generosity and compassion Malkin in no way, shape, or form deserved, apologized? That was fun. She sure did scream and cry a lot, didn’t she? Full of “righteous” fury, that one.
Now she wants to set her Merry Band of Drooling Idiots loose on a family with the temerity to speak up in favor of a medical program that has helped them through some difficult times?
I’m embarrassed to have to share a species with these wastes of oxygen. Fuck off, Michelle. Either get a clue or get lost.
Beady Eye Guy
Chris,
On top of that, aren’t your municipalities famously frugal? Funny how that works since I no longer buy the tax and spend liberal argument like I used to.
I do see how borrowing and spending is much worse :(
Bubblegum Tate
Because, sadly, we have to deal with wingnuts.
Beady Eye Guy
Even scarier – how did a so-called lib like Clinton leave us with a surplus and the guy who succeeded him spent us into major debt?
I firmly believe the wacko-right hated Bill Clinton not because of a bj but because he took their pet ideas and moderated them…
Welfare reform – check.
A bloodless war – WHERE WE WON – check.
Building an awareness of Bin Laden & AQ (funny how Bush wanted to pretend these people weren’t dangerous before 9/11) – check, check and check.
Bankruptcy reform (which would have been much more humane than the law that passed a few years ago) – check (but vetoed because some GOP loon attached some abortion bill to it).
Leadership when OKC was hit – check (and notice he didn’t try to rush through any PATRIOT ACT abominations!).
Let me make this clear…I am no fan of Bill Clinton. I never voted for him (Perot in 92 and Dole in 96) but Bush has sure made him look like a better Prez than he truly was.
AK
I do have a problem with publishing a desperate family’s financial information, scouring pictures of their kitchen to determine the value of their appliances, and stalking their abode. Even if they were used at a press conference by Democrats.
So when you bring a private family into the spotlight and use them as a prop for your political theather, your opponents can’t look into whether their story checks out? You don’t actually believe that, do you?
jake
Please point to similar fiascoes in Medicare or even CHIP. Don’t forget to provide citations so we can check your work.
Chris Johnson
The Sierra Club HATES this, but out west the Bureau of Reclamation does absolutely amazing things. The environmentalists call them beavers, say they hate to see running water anywhere :D that government agency built Hoover Dam. It turns the Colorado River into ridiculous amounts of hydro-power we don’t have to pay the Middle East to have. It provides electricity for Los Angeles, for pete’s sake.
Of course, you have to admit that government electricity took a black eye with Enron- oh wait, that was when they STOPPED being socialist, deregulated California electricity, and sold some of it off to private businesses!
Jesus.
When and why did this become bizarro world, where you have to do exactly what has caused the most damage in the past, only do it more and in every imaginable way, because it’s virtuous damage?
Ted
Medicare. About the only people around who are generally satisfied with their health care in the majority are the elderly.
montysano
Chris, we’re led by a bozo who, until recently, didn’t know the difference between Shia and Sunni; this, of course, was after we’d invaded Iraq. He may not still really get this.
We’re led by a man who, before he became president, had never been outside the USA.
Our president tells us, by example, that it’s OK, even preferable, to be ignorant. Reality TV tells us it’s cool to be an asshole; compassion is for losers. Ignorant an mean; hell of a recipe.
AK
Robert Johnston Says:
Fortunately Maryland has criminal stalking statutes covering exactly this kind of behavior. I, for one, can’t wait to see Malkin’s mug shot.
Wow! You are awesome, Mr. Law! You not only know about Maryland’s “criminal stalking statutes” (no need to cite to the applicable section of the Criminal Law Article, of course, because I’ll just presume you know it), but you know that Malkin violated it. You are a hero and inspiration to us all.
Now you must take the next step: the Baltimore City Police Department’s CrimeStoppers number is (410) 276-8888. If you’re so sure that she committed a crime, you should do your duty and call and tell the police all about it.
If not, you can shut the hell up, you douche.
anon
I think it’s about time for someone to drag up Malkin’s new address and post some satellite images of her house. Maybe we should even try to set up surveillance. After all, there are persistent rumors and circumstantial evidence indicating that Michelle’s husband Jesse actually writes many of her posts.
A word for all the faux outraged rightists who will accuse liberal bloggers of waging a “smear campaign:” Asking questions and subjecting political propagandists to scrutiny are what journalists should be doing.
When a Filipino wingnut welfare queen writes posts with widely varying style and manages to file off shrieking missives on a ’round the clock basis, someone might have questions about her claims of self-authorship. The newspapers that literally employ her don’t want to do their jobs. The vacuum is being filled.
rawshark
:)
Socialism isn’t about the government running everything, that’s fascism. And no one on the left wants that.
capelza
First, did you even read John update..the one with the big screencap from Malkin.
Secondly, checking their story out and driving by and making “guesstimates” about their lives are two different things and then publishing those “guesses” and opinions as “fact”. The second is creepy, creepy, creepy. And wow, Think Progress already posted correct information, but don’t let that get in the of more bullshit inuendo from Michelle Malkin and her tribe. “Wingnut ACTIVATE!”.
Ernie
Hey Cole!
Did Malkin publish maps, specific street names, and photographs of this house? Did she trespass on their property?
Then cram it, okay?
Chris Johnson
Beady Eye Guy- frugal? I know Vermonters are supposed to be canny, frugal types. I guess there might be some of that, yeah.
I don’t see that much of it when I look around. Our roads are mostly good. We get government leaf bags in my town when fall comes around- you can rake up your leaves into a big free bag and it’ll be collected by the town for free. We don’t have free amusement parks with roller coasters for the poor, but we do have a few parks and things (at least in my town). Our police and fire departments are okay. We’re struggling with drug addiction, but I think that is a national thing, and that sure isn’t due to government smack dealers coming to town. In fact our penal system keeps pretty busy and the people in it end up knowing a lot about rehabs and often get to go to stuff like rehab without paying for it. It doesn’t always work, but we’re talking about drug addicts from jail here. I figure it’s worth a shot.
I absolutely see that with years of Socialist and liberal influence in the government at the highest levels, we Vermonters definitely choose to make a safety net and don’t whine about the worthiness of whoever ends up in it. We seem to consider this an obligation. We DON’T seem to be having insanely high taxes and the destruction of the middle class as a result- it’s the Long Islands which are getting that.
Those guys buy vacation houses in _our_ state and don’t even live in them. So we tax them for it :D if it ain’t a homestead, you’re going to be paying more.
incontrolados
Ted
Indeed. The Wingnut Welfare approach is a good one to use on them. They love to go on and on about the magic of capitalism that will fix every problem. Why not point out they are not producers and what they do provide exceeds demand.
Hell, a burger-flipper at McDonald’s contributes more to the economy than they do.
Ted
Give her a couple days. She holds back on those details until her target responds to her charges and she needs to retaliate.
anon
Yeah, you tell ’em, Ernie!
Malkin didn’t publish the residential address of this family! She just linked directly to the FreeRepublic poster who did! Oh, wait…
Jesse, is that you?
Chris Johnson
Monty- yes but surely I have the right to observe how ignorance and viciousness work in practice, and decide for myself whether these things ought to be enshrined in my government?
You say it like, we are shown these things at the highest levels of government and told that’s the only way to be and therefore we have to BELIEVE such nonsense.
Isn’t it also possible that all that is stupid and selfdestructive and deserves about as much credence as the tantrum of a three-year-old?
But then I’m just a bucolic Vermonter who doesn’t understand these important moral issues… ;)
capelza
How did I miss this gem?
Chris Johnson
But _my_ Senators (Sanders and Leahy) are among the few who aren’t cringing, shell-shocked sheep, so I claim a certain amount of moral authority from that, even if one of them is a Socialist :D
binzinerator
What disturbs me about this stalkin’ Malkin business is that she is doing it to a family, including the kids. She’s also checking up on the kids — where they go to school. That’s not just creepy, there’s a threatening element to that, and it ought to alarm anyone.
I would think it would certainly alarm that family. Who wouldn’t be fearful now for their children?
It’s a way to intimidate them, and intimidate others who might do what they did — show to the nation the faces of actual children who would be affected by the SCHIP veto.
This is almost brownshirt stuff. It really is.
And this is taking the right-wing tactic of publishing personal information on their websites for hoped-for retribution to the next level. She’s now doing the footwork for the fringe nuts who just might do something to these people — or their kids.
Really, if the fringe right can shoot people through their living room windows, or bomb kids in a daycare, it’s only reasonable to be concerned.
Now that Malkin’s going through the motions of an attacker and she because has a very large audience — it’s what she’s doing, and the numbers who are supportive of this — that I wonder if it means we just may well be witnessing the transition of proto-fascism into real fascism.
Ernie
Ted Says:
Did Malkin publish maps, specific street names, and photographs of this house? Did she trespass on their property?
Give her a couple days. She holds back on those details until her target responds to her charges and she needs to retaliate.
So that would be a “no.”
Malkin didn’t publish the residential address of this family! She just linked directly to the FreeRepublic poster who did! Oh, wait…
Then Cole linked to Malkin. So now even more people know about it.
capelza
That’s one of her favourite tricks. Then she can say “Who me?” while getting the information out there. Will I get banned if I use the C word?
capelza
binzinerator
It IS brownshirt stuff.
AK
Really, if the fringe right can shoot people through their living room windows, or bomb kids in a daycare, it’s only reasonable to be concerned.
In all seriousness, what the hell are you talking about?
anon
Yeah! And being the pro-child stalking pederasts that they are, Google fuckin’ linked to ’em all!
Ernie, you’re a fuckin’ maroon.
Beady Eye Guy
AK,
So it’s okay to publicly post somebody’s home address, phone number, email etc for political gain?
If you want to investigate, fine, but I am quite sure it’s not okay for you or anybody else to peek into another persons house and make assumptions of their ability to live.
Argh…Investigate, fine. Problem becomes when it’s someone on your side of the aisle, the whining becomes unbearable.
The Other Andrew
When over 70% of the country supports something, as is the case with SCHIP, stalking is really all they have left.
Bubblegum Tate
Also, it’s how the Wingnut Voltron works.
Beady Eye Guy
Uhhhh AK…. the fringe right think it’s okay to blow up bombs in Olympic villages to make a point. The fringe right also seem to have no problem blowing up buildings to sell their beliefs.
Last time I checked Code Pink or that Cindy whatever her name is weren’t making threats to expose people’s personal info or bombing clinics to make their case.
Ever heard of the fringe wackos that publish abortion doctors home addresses?
It happens way too much and it isn’t very nice.
Again, nothing wrong with investigating until it becomes stalking.
And no, I didn’t think it was right for that lefty blogger to bug Bill OReilly at home (even though he dispatches his minions to people’s homes with regularity).
Paul L.
Wow,
This story reminds me of the lesbian couple who promoted themselves in the media for the cause of gay marriage and got married in Massachusetts.
You know what they said when they got divorced “respect our privacy”
capelza
Agree…on both points.
Beady Eye Guy
Funny how Ann Coulter’s books are “best sellers” when we all know the righty think tanks buy them up.
Funny how the right claims to be fans of free speech until they disagree with somebody.
Funny how the media is sooooo liberal yet turn on any talking head show and it’s very likely the “guest” pundit has a righty POV.
Funny how the right loves to talk about fair and open markets until one of their contributors is having problems competing. Even better is how they keep relaxing the media rules.
capelza
Were wingnuts driving by their house and posting where their children go to school? Yeah, this is just like that.
Paul L.
Ever heard of the newspapers publishing the names and addresses of people who have concealed carry permits?
Ted
Yeah! That’s some great logic. I’m impressed.
It’s hilarious what comes out of the keyboards of the Stalkin’ Malkin(love it!) retard brigades…
Bubblegum Tate
Chad Castagana is shocked–shocked–that would would suggest knuckle-dragging Freepers/Malkintents would be so unhinged!
Ted
In the Wingnut Voltron, Malkin is apparently the left arm.
Jay B.
So when you bring a private family into the spotlight and use them as a prop for your political theather, your opponents can’t look into whether their story checks out? You don’t actually believe that, do you?
Wow. That 12-year old really had it coming, didn’t he? The nerve of that asshole, getting helped by a government program, despite his family owning a house!
First, what he was saying was hardly controversial, except to you demented freaks who can simultaneously argue for more trillion dollar wars and less health care for 12 year olds because it’s too damn expensive.
Second, you consider a 12-year old your political opponent? Do you even understand how crazy that makes you seem to the 70% of the country who supports health care for kids (including scores of Republicans)?
Finally, on top of the obvious insanity of your determination to “get” a 12-year old, their story checks out if you know anything about: a) financial aid b) real estate c) gentrification d) health care e) small business and/or f) raising a family.
Wow. I’ve never been a Republican, but it’s shocking even to a longtime liberal how far you guys have fallen. Enjoy the decades in the wilderness, genius.
capelza
Oh god..I had forgotten about that guy! FR was scrubbed faster than a baby in cold water over that guy. If it hadn’t been so god awful and criminal what he did, it would have been even hilarious.
anon
Paul L. is promoting himself online for the cause of coming to the defense of wingnuts stalking severely injured children. By his own logic, he can’t complain when we look up his address, post it online and encourage people to estimate his yearly income.
What a motherfucking sick, sad authoritarian asshole you are, Paul. Seriously, get cancer and die, fuckstick.
Cain
That whole DARPA thing? Some project called the Internets.. I think that went pretty well right?
cain
AK
“bombs in Olympic villages”
And you’re using the plural form because… there was more than one?
The fringe right also seem to have no problem blowing up buildings to sell their beliefs.
You mean Timothy McVeigh? Amazing! In the space of one comment section, the definition of “fringe right” has shrunk from “everyone who reads Malkin’s blog” to “one guy.”
Ever heard of the fringe wackos that publish abortion doctors home addresses?
I don’t support that. But how much violence has actually come out of it? And in the history of the U.S., how many abortion clinic bombings have there been, despite the fact that they’re listed in the phone book? There’s more violence against abortionists and clinics in one season of Law & Order than there has been in the history of the U.S.
Anyway, I don’t generally support publishing personal information about political opponents. It serves no purpose; the debate should be on the issues. Here, however, the Democrats trotted out a pathetic moppet to tell a sob story to make their case for them. You can’t have it both ways. Once this family chose to make their private matters public for political gain, it’s only fair that their opponents get to investigate as to whether their story checks out.
I wouldn’t like my political opponents walking the public streets in front of my house to estimate how much I make. That’s one of several reasons that I don’t allow my kids to be used as political props.
whippoorwill
She just published a bunch of personal information claiming this 12 year old was well off and just mooching off the government. A twelve year old asshole Ernie.
And as usual all of Malkin’s brilliant investigative revelations turn out to be bogus. This kid and his sister had been horribly injured, and now Freeper shitheads are stalking them like a pack of Hyenas. Crawl back into your wingnut hole Ernie and when you decide to slither back out and slime some more children we’ll be waiting to greet you.
Paul L.
Stay classy, progressive.
Ted
Ernie’s gone back over to Malkin’s to help them estimate the value of the Frost’s toaster oven.
Pooh
So why was it a good idea to put the government in charge of a whole other country then?
Oh, sorry, I mean WHOLE OTHER COUNTRY…
jake
I have to wonder if the Frosts are the subject of the latest fRightWing Hate On in part because they don’t fit the stereotype of public assistance recipients.
If this were a brownish hued single-parent family living in public housing and CPS workers were camped out on the door step, they could be dismissed out of hand. But the Frosts are Caucasian and and mom and dad are married, so the Frighties have gone into a frenzy trying to find something wrong with them.
Look! A sticker with the date we get a new president! J’accuse!
If they’d leave the kids alone it would be funny.
Psycheout
This is what the left always does: they hide behind “victims” so that others cannot criticize them, whether it’s 9/11 widows or “poor” children.
If the father in this family would get a real job and abandon his silly woodworking hobby, perhaps he could afford to actually take care of his responsibilities that come with having a family. The answer is not yet another government teat.
The left just love to enslave people, though don’t they? Yet it’s good honest hardworking conservatives who are teh eeevil. What a bunch of “poverty” pimps.
Ted
Agreed. And I happen to think Ken Lay and Duke Cunningham are excellent examples of good honest hardworking conservatives.
AK
Wow. That 12-year old really had it coming, didn’t he? The nerve of that asshole, getting helped by a government program, despite his family owning a house!
Oh, I’m sorry. It seems you are not aware that this 12-year-old’s parents had him deliver a radio address for the Democrats. I encourage you to read up on this story, and when you have progressed beyond complete ignorance, you may try commenting again later.
Anyway, for all I know this story may “check out,” whatever that means. It wouldn’t suprise me to learn that this family receives scholarships, bought their house at the right time, and don’t have skills worth more than $45,000. And I really don’t know what this family’s medical needs are. I don’t care about this story that much. What I find fascinating is that you folks think it’s completely wrong for anyone to even inquire into whether this story checks out. No, we should always take all Democrats at their word. Sorry! I’ll do better next time.
jnfr
Enslave people to corporations as the only way to have health care. That’s what our system now does.
John S.
Sure, and what the right always does is hide behind soldiers and lapel pins so that others cannot criticize their patriotism.
Rhetorical see-saw…YAY!
Mike
You’re telling him to give up trying to run a small business? Yup, the right supports capitalism and free enterprise, all right.
John S.
You might be a wingnut if…
Pooh
I hear somethin’ sayin’
(hooh! aah!) (hooh! aah!)
(hooh! aah!) (hooh! aah!)
(Well, don’t you know)
That’s the sound of the men working on the chain ga-a-ang
That’s the sound of the men working on the chain gang
All day long they’re singin’
(hooh! aah!) (hooh! aah!)
(hooh! aah!) (hooh! aah!)
(Well, don’t you know)
That’s the sound of the men working on the chain ga-a-ang
That’s the sound of the men working on the chain gang
All day long they work so hard
Till the sun is goin’ down
Working on the highways and byways
And wearing, wearing a frown
You hear them moanin’ their lives away
Then you hear somebody sa-ay
That’s the sound of the men working on the chain ga-a-ang
That’s the sound of the men working on the chain gang
Can’t ya hear them singin’
Mm, I’m goin’ home one of these days
I’m goin’ home see my woman
Whom I love so dear
But meanwhile I got to work right he-ere
(Well, don’t you know)
That’s the sound of the men working on the chain ga-a-ang
That’s the sound of the men working on the chain gang
All day long they’re singin’, mm
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my work is so hard
Give me water, I’m thirsty
capelza
AK..one guy? McVeigh and don’t forget Nichols, Rudolph, and others who off the top of my head I can’t remeber but if you were sincere you could find them
The Viper Militia (thankfully caught before they could use their explosives on Phoenix), William Krar and his associates ( they actually had built a fully functional cyannide bomb, Matthew Hale, James Kopp, Craig Orler and Gabriel Garafa, Demetrius “Van” Crocker, etc. etc. etc.
And the reason there hasn’t been more that actually get away with it is a goverment funded agency, the FBI.
See, and I am old enough to remember the flaming shootout of the Order in Washington, and the Nazi whack jobs in Idaho, and the Skinheads who tried to set up shop in Portland, and Posse Comitatus, etc, etc, the Freemne..do you want me to go on?
Ernie
She just published a bunch of personal information claiming this 12 year old was well off and just mooching off the government. A twelve year old asshole Ernie.
Because the parents of twelve year olds and their families are immune from criticism, irrespective of whether they deliver the Democrats’ weekly radio address.
I also find it hysterical that anyone could possibly think this family is in any danger from anyone on the right. I knew you folks were paranoid (9/11 was an inside job!!!), but this is silly. If Cole really thought they were in danger, he wouldn’t be supplying a link to the site that links their home addres. He’d just say “Michelle Malkin said X,” and wouldn’t supply a link. But you guys don’t actually think they’re in danger. You’re just scoring mock outrage points. It’s sad, really.
Bill Arnold
Really, if the fringe right can shoot people through their living room windows, or bomb kids in a daycare, it’s only reasonable to be concerned.
In all seriousness, what the hell are you talking about?
hm. James C. Kopp (though that was a kitchen window). Timothy McVeigh. Those are obvious, there may be others.
Chris Johnson
Excuse me, but are you seriously saying that the trouble with this country is that one cannot criticize the left??
anon
Why don’t we consult “>Wikipedia?
brett
Did you really expect these people to remain anonymous after you used them as sock puppets on the national stage?
> I don’t have a problem with opposing SCHIP, I don’t have a problem with opposing legislation by anecdote
Sure. I guess that’s why you focused on those points here, instead of foaming at the mouth at a little scrutiny of your literal poster child.
ninerdave
Folks, all this is bickering is really not necessary.
Michelle is apparently a journalist now.
She’s just doing her best to report on the living conditions of a specific family. This is not stalking, this is serious reporting.
Bithead
Gee, gang… you don’t seem to mind salking Republicans…
Must be OK, then, huh?
Or maybe, it’s just decent investigative reporting?
Beady Eye Guy
Mike,
Funny how the far right tells somebody who is poor to work harder.
Funny how they tell guys to give up their small business (so much for being the party of small business).
Yet they scream leave us alone whenever a law they don’t like pisses them off.
Funny how things work that way.
Krista
Not necessarily. But nor should we have Michelle Malkin fancying herself an investigative reporter and skulking about people’s homes, instead of having the basic courtesy to…I don’t know….ASK them for a fricking interview?
anon
Damn link tags:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion-related_violence
cleek
“you” ?
looks like someone’s misdirected his rage.
capelza
bithead….is linking to THIS topic some kind of damning evidence of something?
AK
So you have… how many actual bombs going off? How much actual violence?
I like your lists of people and groups that no one has every heard of, because now I know who the “fringe right” is. Some people in these comments want to call the people who read Malkin the “fringe right.” Thank you for clearing this up: now I know it’s just a bunch of neo-Nazi nuts out west.
Sure, it’s more than “one guy.” But you’re not trying to tell me that you fear that some skinhead idiots are going to gome for li’l Greamlin (or whatever his name is) and bomb his school, are you? You can’t possibly believe that. Even Nazis don’t have time for shit this small.
Oh, I almost forgot: you get bonus retard points for implying that the right doesn’t support the FBI.
And I do want you to go on, actually. Please give me a list of all the daycare centers and abortion clinics bombed by members of the “fringe right.” It won’t take you long, I promise.
mk
Malkin’s nose pressed up against my window would get her introduced to a Right Wing claim to fame: Colorado’s Make My Day Law.
What? Is Malkin 25 going on 12, or something? Her cognitive/analytic apparatus seems underdeveloped. Her behavior is something right out of a ‘tween movie.
Pathetic.
SPIIDERWEB™
Of course there are bugs in the system. There are always bugs. They can be remedied. Of course there are cheaters. There are always cheaters. They can be flushed out.
But we’re talking about children here. Its not their fault daddy can’t hold down a job nor mommy. They’re children. With luck and the help of the government they’ll get medical attention.
Should Malkin’s employment dry up and she become a stinking homeless person, I would love to hear the tune she sings.
Beady Eye Guy
Hey Paul L,
That concealed gun printing has nothing to do with my point, but glad you brought it up.
First, what does the Tennessean have to do with my original point? If my personal info has to be printed in order to get a small business license or fictitious name permit, what’s the big deal?
If I have to give the guvmint my personal info no matter where I go nowadays, why is that such a big deal?
Don’t get a concealed gun permit. It still doesn’t answer why it’s okay to print the address of a guy’s family because he supports something you disagree with.
If you dislike the concealed gun permits being published (I’m pro-gun so please do NOT try to turn the argument) in the Tennessean, here’s what you do: Boycott the paper, call it’s advertisers, call the editor.
This poor guy can’t ask Michelle Malkin to stop posting his info because one of her supporters did it for her. If he asks, they’d demonize him even further.
Please do not try and obfuscate my points. You won’t get name calling from me because I debate the points.
Pooh
I support polio vaccination for all Americans, red or blue.
cleek
here’s a little clicky map which might help you learn something.
Ted
Actuall, I think anyone who pisses off the Stalkin’ Malkins is in potentially physical danger.
So why did the ‘scrutiny’ have to be the family’s home address, phone number, and a couple of visits to their home by one Michelle Maglalang? Can we all show up at Michelle’s tomorrow and dig through her trash?
Rick Taylor
I’d prefer that too, but what are the chances of that? Slim to none; we may not even be able to pass this.
AK
So the thirty year toll for abortion clinic violence is…
7 people, including 3 doctors, 2 clinic employees, a security guard, and a clinic escort.
Wow. Staggering. We have an absolute plague of abortion clinic violence on our hands.
And if we throw Canada in the mix, and use the statistics from the abortion clinics themselves we get…
17 attempted murders, 383 death threats, 153 incidences of assault or battery, and 3 kidnappings committed against abortion providers.
A staggering toll of violence.
A math problem: If over thirty years this is all the violence against abortion clinics, what is probability that there will be violence against this kid’s family?
Hint: it rhymes with “hero”
capelza
AK… YOU go do the legwork. We have had more bombs go off from white boys than terrorists. They aren’t just out west. Oh and another off the top of my head..that kid from Liberty Universit who had pipe bombs in his car to stop disruptive protestors at Falwell’s funeral.
Do I fear Skinheads and Wingers? Fuck yeah..I live in the PNW. These assholes were a problem for decades. I fear them and I’m a blonde nordic goddess! (I kid about the goddess bit).
And Malkin IS the “fringe right”.
Justin Slotman
But only if they’re not living in some fancy condo with a brand new truck! They should pay for that vaccine themselves if they can live like that.
paradox
This is very good thinking and I will be watching very closely too. True fascism arrives with intimidating violence.
What he was talking about was the murder of an abortion provider–a wing nut shot him through a window in his family home. With his children present.
Bombing daycare occurred at Oklahoma City.
sparky
Look! A jackalope! Pay no attention to the actual issue!
But so far, perhaps, it’s working–a hullabaloo about this smear rather than the actual issue here–the program.
All you “righties”: what exactly is so bad about spending money on this program? More precisely, if we can afford to spend gazillions in Iraq, why can’t we spend this amount in the US? I’d appreciate one real answer, and by real I mean something other than a slogan.
Anyone?
Beady Eye Guy
Ernie,
I am a small business owner and it’s funny how the hard right could care less about me. I don’t cry over it, I actually thrive on it because it makes me even more competitive and goal minded.
Here’s the problem…I saw Bush trot out some “small business” owner everytime he wanted the tax cuts taken seriously. Funny thing those tax cuts, I have never seen one dime of them. It’s not that I need them as I have no problem paying a fair tax rate. You see I care about this country and I don’t mind paying my fair share. Could it be better, sure problem is everybody wants a war yet nobody wants to sacrifice a damn thing.
That’s the sad part. Back to the small business comment…he has done NOTHING for small business. He would rather give his billion dollar buddies more and more of the pie than make them work for it. You see, I work hard yet I see cronyism and the rules changed everyday for all but the elite.
When I hear a former party-mate whine about elitists, I laugh because the right are as much part of the elite as anyone else.
How come it’s okay for Bush to trot out his special folks yet it’s not okay when the left does it? It still doesn’t excuse harassing a man and his kids.
It’s wrong whether he was a GOP dupe or a Dem one.
anon
AK, I kinda figured you’d find seven murders and 17 attempted murders to be just a drop in the bucket. After all, domestic leftist terrorists must kill and injure many more people. Sadly, no:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_First%21
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Liberation_Front
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Liberation_Front
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-terrorism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbionese_Liberation_Army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_panthers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_%28organization%29
You’ve got to go back to the Sixties before the sum total of deaths from all of these domestic-left wing terrorist groups even approaches seven people. The right-wing has racked up those numbers, in abortion clinic violence alone, in less than 15 years.
Beady Eye Guy
AK,
1 death due to abortion clinic violence is too much. I don’t care what the number is, 1 is too much for a group that claims life is precious.
AK
Oh, this is getting fun: No, YOU do the legwork!!!11!!!one!!! The fact that you can name the individual perpetrators shows you just how rare this sort of thing is.
Does anyone actually believe that this kid or his family is at the slightest risk of violence?
If you answered “yes,” do you also believe that “9/11 was an inside job”?
If you answered “yes,” do you realize that you’re off your medication?
John S.
Shorter AK:
You can draw a Laffer curve on a chart depicting right-wing violence and abortion clinics, and as the rate of deaths increase the rate of right-wing involvement actually decreases!
capelza
I hope the family gets video of these people driving by their house and then put those on YouTube…I’d actually pay good money to see Malkin creeping by in her car, slowly so she could take it all in.
Or any other cretin who does it.
paradox
Unless I missed it, AK didn’t provide a source for those stats, he could have pulled them out of his ass for all we know.
Rick Taylor
Looks like Powerline, Weekly Standard, and Wizbang have picked it right up. So has Captain Ed. Rick Moran hasn’t touched it, so I respect him for that. Maybe I should visit there more often.
Beady Eye Guy
Sparky,
Agreed. The only folks being taxed for this new program would be smokers. I am not for banning anything (I say legalize pot, but heck that would make too much sense to do! – BTW I have never smoked the stuff) unless it’s hard drugs. A .50 tax on cigs would have paid for this program.
anon
Shorter AK:
anon
I had quoted those stats from wikipedia.
capelza
AK..I am sure all the victims of Chad Castagna thought that their actions wouldn’t draw the attention of the lunatic fringe..ie Free republic and Malkin’s minions.
Beady Eye Guy
BTW AK,
Did you know that many righty bloggers post the private addresses of Doctors who are engaged in family planning?
Again, I do not see Cindy whatshername or Code Pink posting right blogger’s home addresses.
AK
Hey cleek, I went to your little “clicky map.” Nothing I didn’t know already. A lot of arsons and attempted arsons, mostly in the middle of the night when no one was there. Property damage, mostly. None of this can be justified, of course. Good ends do not justify evil means. But come on…
Seven people killed dead in thirty years.
Clearly a crisis of staggering proportions.
capelza
I in ur street, i is reportur!
paradox
Yeah, I saw the source link later, thank you.
I wonder what this asshole would think if seven Republican elected politicians had been killed. That would be nothing too, right?
Beady Eye Guy
Guys, what about the Olympics bomber? I forgot his name but he mamed and hurt (and killed) many yet there were folks that allowed him to hide out.
That’s not right and if the right had any fairness, they’d outright declare that this kind of behavior is immoral and wrong.
Jesus is very ashamed of those who sympathize with murderers and those who would do harm to others they disagree with.
Psycheout
THINK OF THE CHILDRENZ!!! Ignore the facts behind the curtain.
Let’s have a war on white boys! Pathetic jackalope.
Beady Eye Guy
AK,
SEVEN is too many. Sheesh, why is that okay with you?
cleek
wow, just look at him try to minimize the right’s long history of abortion-clinic violence! given that, i think it’s safe to conclude that AK is objectively pro-terrorism.
paradox
That’s exactly right, he’s a pro-terrorist. Truly. Search his house, open his mail, spy on his kids, beat the shit out of his wife and tell him to stp whining about it. It’s the GOP way.
rawshark
It might work.
Psycheout
That’s great and noble and makes you feel good. Just keep your hands off my wallet. Don’t take my money to give to leeches who don’t deserve it. I earned it, not them.
Using the government to rob hardworking folk to give to the lazy and failures among us is immoral to the core. Especially when it doesn’t solve anything but prop up votes for the poverty pimps on the left.
anon
I repeat:
AK, I kinda figured you’d find seven murders and 17 attempted murders to be just a drop in the bucket. After all, domestic leftist terrorists must kill and injure many more people. Sadly, no:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_First%21
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Liberation_Front
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Liberation_Front
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-terrorism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbionese_Liberation_Army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_panthers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_%28organization%29
You’ve got to go back to the Sixties before the sum total of deaths from all of these domestic-left wing terrorist groups even approaches seven people. The right-wing has racked up those numbers, in abortion clinic violence alone, in less than 15 years.
cleek
The right-wing has racked up those numbers, in abortion clinic violence alone, in less than 15 years.
and, it bears repeating that McVeigh raised the bar well out of the reach of anything “the left” has done, no matter how far back you go – shame about his choice of targets, thuogh, eh Ms Coulter ?
anon
However, Haliburton and the rest of the profiteers that grease our elective war machine have earned every penny of your $7500 dollar share of the war cost, I’m sure. After all, leaches don’t have private security details and bought Congressmen, while Haliburton does.
capelza
cleek…it isn’t just abortion clinics either.
And lest we forget the 169 in Oklahoma City, but that was just that one dude…actually it wasn’t just McVeigh, but according to AK it was..so that doesn’t count.
Did AK minimise the arrests of those loopy wannabe jihadists in Florida. Wasn’t it there..the ones who wanted uniforms and all the trimmings? Thank god they didn’t have a cyanide bomb, they’d blown themsleves and their neighbours up.
whippoorwill
Ernie
All you need to know was that he and his sister were badly injured and needed treatment. Obviously, the state of Maryland thought so too when they evaluated and approved their kids for s-chip.
What they didn’t need is a bunch of third rate hack bloggers stalking them and apparently taking pictures of their kitchen and god knows what else. I know your side is desperate for liberal scandals to exploit but how about picking on adults instead. And in the mean time GO FUCK YOURSELF.
Bubblegum Tate
Well, your typical Freeper spends enough time sitting on his ass witching The Price Is Right to have finely honed his toaster-oven-cost-estimating skills.
Hey, you try being a white guy writing as a Filipino woman. It’s not as easy as you’d think
jnfr
Look you might not like this family, but they aren’t lazy failures. They’re ordinary middle class people raising their kids, working their butts off, who had a terrible tragedy occur. It could happen to any of us the exact same way.
And if you think you’re safe because you have insurance, you need to do more research. A lot of insurance company money goes towards denying legal claims; that’s one of the reasons why Medicare is more efficient.
Patrick Carroll
It must be awful to be hoisted with your own petard.
I mean, trotting out a little moppet to give you utter moral authority, only to have people point out that the moppet lives in a half-million dollar house, goes to a $20,000/year private school, and is the grandson of an Executive VP of Bendix.
BTW, if public schools aren’t good enough for the moppet, why public health care?
The child isn’t being attacked. What’s being attacked is the tediousness of the Democrat approach to non-debate.
The Other Steve
Damn, I missed the one decent flame war we’ve had here in months.
So now the Republicans think the answer to returning to a majority in Congress is to attack working class Americans?
Great idea… not
anon
Psycheout, I assume that your mother or grandmother has never cashed a Social Security check or claimed Medicare benfits, right? Because if they have, they are obviously lazy, immoral failures.
Well, maybe not, but you’d have to give us their addresses or copies of their death certificates so that we could do the
stalkingresearch to be be sure.jnfr
Medical Bills are the Leading Cause of Bankruptcy
The Other Steve
Technically you can’t really call those groups left. PETA and the pro-life groups have much more in common with one another than not. The people who burn down scientific labs to save the animals are the same people storming abortion clinics to save the zygotes.
It’s the bleeding heart thing. Left over from the 60s and embraced firmly by the right.
Not that I don’t care about other people. It’s just that I odn’t normally go around trying to bomb the buildings to make my point.
sparky
rawshark:
A nice fantasy, I know. BTW, thanks for the Orwell link re: nationalism.
Using the government to rob hardworking folk to give to the lazy and failures among us is immoral to the core. Especially when it doesn’t solve anything but prop up votes for the poverty pimps on the left.
Well, if there are people engaged in robbery, we ought to have them arrested. Who are they?
BTW, who are the poverty pimps?
Incidentally, should we eliminate farm subsidies? And what about ensuring that states like NY get back a dollar for every dollar the Federal Government gets from it? Or are those policies moral?
anon
Stupid liberals. Everyone knows that lazy failures get injured and sick at a rate far above that of the general populace.
The Other Steve
They had a choice. They could have easily chosen to die and saved us all a lot of trouble.
DougJ
If you answer “no”, do you also believe that the earth is 6000 years old?
The Other Steve
So like, uhh… taking $500 billion of my money and blowing it in Iraq, is what exactly?
paradox
Psycheout paid for the roads he used to succeed, the municipal water system, the electrical grid, and his public education.
Oh he didn’t? What a pimped out little freeloader whore he’s been all his life!
jnfr
Clearly we all need to start smoking more, to save those precious precious dollars.
paradox
“Poverty Pimps” are those who base a career on helping others in poverty. Social workers, admins, stuff like that.
He’s thinking of the non-profit management jobs that pay over 100k a year. Damn those freeloader phd management pimps, they make his pissant earnings look even worse!
capelza
From Red State. This isn’t a comment, but the damn diary, Yeah, I’m not posting the link. It’s a recommended diary.
anon
Maybe that’s the wingnuts’ real plan. Fuck, I know I’ve put down a pint of whiskey and half a pack of Camels since I stumbled onto Malkin’s latest call to arms.
Bubblegum Tate
that was bought for much, much less when the neighborhood was in much crummier shape
on scholarship
which, you know, totally matters.
I imagine so–why don’t you tell us what it feels like?
Can you imagine how much better this country would be if wingnuts were productive members of society instead of shitty, shitty wannabe “journalists” and “investigators?” Now that’s a world worth aspiring to.
PS: Psycheout is a spoof. I’m a big fan of his work.
The Other Steve
Blackwater?
jnfr
Me, I’m off to watch Heroes. That should lighten my mood a little.
Mike S
Boy, Michele has some dumb assed fans doesn’t she? Look at the losers in this thread. The sad thing is that they are the same type of sick fucks who are running this country. And I have no doubt that the majority of them say they follow the teachings of Jesus.
Boy are they in for a surprise when they get to the gates of heaven. I just wish there was a camera on the gate for when Jesus himself denies them entry.
paradox
I’m going to go watch Modern Marvels, dern that little Psycheout wimped out.. GOP is full of weenies, ain’t it the truth?
Night.
capelza
The thing about RedState that gets me is didn’t Erick get harrassing phone calls or mail, or his wife did, because someone on the left posted that information? Which was wrong, wrong, wrong.
Yet, there is his own site applauding the Freepers for doing exactly that,
rawshark
The only people being robbed are the super rich. They’re paying for services of which they will never partake. But just because they’re paying a boatload in taxes doesn’t mean there is something wrong with our country. They earned it here, in the market structured and regulated by this government so they pay up proportionately. Or we can give them back their cash, bankrupt our government and watch the country turn into a George C. Romero movie.
The Other Steve
Unlike fucktards on the right… most Americans earn their own livings. They don’t rely upon daddy to buy them a baseball team.
Psycheout
I don’t think it’s right to jack up cigarette taxes to support families like the Frosts who are too damn cheap to pay for their own insurance. Should we pay for their car insurance too, just because they don’t want to pay it? How about their lottery tickets and booze?
Liberals just hate smokers. Smokers are overtaxed. They are an easy target, but they can’t pay for every social program. You can’t get blood from a stone.
The Other Steve
Do you think if we were overrun by Zombies, George Bush would even know where to start?
whippoorwill
P. Carroll says
They’re going to special schools dumbass, because both suffered serious brain injuries and need special ed.
They receive scholarships for the 20,000 year tuition.
They bought the house for 55,000 16 years ago. Jeez, you guys can’t even keep up with own smear. Even if the kid has a VP grandfather at some corporation, which is likely another lie, it is completely irrelevant. Oh, and your reference to “Little Mopett” just shows what a flaming asshole you are Carroll. Crawl back to Freeperville do what ever it is you do over there.
John Cole
But that is different, according to wingnut logic, because these parents opted to put their kids in the spotlight. And since we all know good parents never subject your kids to crazies, the right wingers have taken it upon themselves to be sociopathic crazies to prove their point.
Or something.
The whole thing is tasteless. The Democrats never should have used the kid as an anecdote, but what Malkin and the others are doing right now is even worse by a shitload. It is disgusting.
Chris Johnson
Wow. “Can we please get an IRS audit on this family”, huh?
That’s a good question. Can they?
daniel rotter
Psycheout…I must have missed the legislation that passed that says that one can’t criticize the left. I guess that means that Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh (among others) are lawbreakers then, because they are certainly violating the shit out of that law.
Psycheout
mbecker at Red State:
Take that!
Ken
Oh, please– Cole, you jumped the shark a while back. Just STFU until and unless you can actually write something coherently.
RSA
What strikes me about this tempest is that it seems as if Malkin et al. think that by calling this family’s financial situation into question they can discredit the idea that there are people who can’t afford medical insurance for their kids. (Malkin: “But legislation-by-anecdote is a tricky thing, and should only be done when the anecdotes actually hold some water.” It’s actually legislation aimed at helping millions of children; the Democrats picked a couple to make an emotional appeal. See
Zambonisnow flake babies for an analogy.)I see a connection to the rightwing’s discounting of bad news from Iraq. If they can just prove that one photo of smoke was darkened, or that some temple was not quite destroyed, then it means that the whole disaster in Iraq isn’t really happening.
rawshark
The feds don’t have constitutional authority to do this? Why not?
capelza
Oh I hope that mbecker diary is spread ALL OVER the internet!
whippoorwill
Both sides have been using kids as political props on certain issues for a long time. Remember the snowflake kids born from from frozen embryos. How creepy was that. Point is, nobody in my memory has tried to pull the shit Malkin et al..are pulling right now. This is a crossover moment for these jackals and it makes me mad a hell.
sparky
Psychout:
Ooooh. Selfspoof. Teh circle is complete.
Chris Johnson
Actually, that’s a REALLY REALLY good question.
Never mind the other stuff, some of which would be criminal behavior anyway.
CAN they arrange to have the Frosts audited by the IRS for entirely political reasons as vengeance for their allowing their kid to speak publically in favor of a health bill?
To my mind that’s a tipping point because you could always blame things like violence on the acts of deranged individuals, but if they can in fact get IRS to act for political reasons, that means that WINGNUTS are able to use government forces to harass anyone who offends them. Are they able to do that or are they just talking crap?
Dug Jay
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much faux outrage among loony leftist losers as in this thread.
Ninerdave
What the hell is this?
Is this supposed to be some kinda of trump card against “liberals”. I seen this a few times in this thread. Odd, I’ve never met a liberal who thinks 9/11 was an inside job, and I know more than a few. I’ve never seen it brought up on any liberal blog I read. Where’d this come from?
Dug Jay
Also, the number of times in which the IRS was tasked to go after conservatives during the Clinton years is too great to count.
Chris Johnson
“Dug”- ya know, this is America. Technically, we’re allowed to be in favor of whatever bill or other is going through Congress without being stalked, threatened, having shit made up about us and spewed everywhere, and audited by the IRS on the grounds of the shit some wingnuts just plain made up in the first place. Just saying…
I guess it would count as ‘faux’ outrage if… actually, I don’t know. If we expected as much and knew, deep down, we deserved it? If we were only pretending to resent it and secretly did exactly the same things? Right now I see a whole lot of bad noise about wreaking terrible vengeance on people simply because they took a political- and widely popular- position. You guys are the first to bitch about the IRS unless you can scheme about using it to wipe out a middle-class family, huh?
Sorry- outrage does exist for understandable reasons, it’s not always ‘faux’, the world does not revolve around gamesmanship and politics.
Tsulagi
Yes, it takes a mighty virile Republican manly man to call for the charge by others up the ass of a 12-year-old and his family. He better watch out with that talk on RedState, he’ll set a lot of toes to tapping. The deafening sound might hurt his ears.
Chris Johnson
Zero is too great to count? Or do you have a specific number in mind that isn’t zero?
Are we talking conservatives like Ken Lay or somebody? In this case we’re talking about a middle-class family headed by a small business owner, who bought their house for $55K, of which WINGNUTS claim out of nowhere that it’s worth $400K and is a mansion paid for by tax evasion.
What???
g-rant
Why not? This family is the poster child (literally, apparently) for how health care problems cause many families untold misery. They’re trying to make the “American Dream” come true and are smacked upside the head by our crappy health care system.
Dug Jay
Chris Johnson…here are a few examples:
In a very real way, the IRS was Clinton’s secret police agency — the go-to guys when no other punishment will do.
Billy Dale, the long-time White House Travel Office director, knew that terror. After being summarily fired by Hillary Clinton in favor of friends and relations from Arkansas, Dale was investigated by the FBI and subjected to an audit by the IRS. Both came up empty.
Paula Jones discovered it as well. Just days after she rejected a settlement offer of her sexual harassment case from Clinton’s attorneys, Jones was targeted for an IRS audit.
Elizabeth Ward Gracen, the actress who had a fatal attraction to Bill Clinton before he became president, got an audit notice after she went public with the story of her affair and following threats warning her not to talk.
Former presidential aide Dick Morris, after meeting with House Judiciary Committee staff, revealed on television that impeachment investigators fully expected to be audited because of their work on the case.
A veritable who’s who of Clinton administration adversaries had been targeted for audit during his years in power. They include, among others: the Heritage Foundation, the National Rifle Association, Concerned Women of America, Citizens Against Government Waste, National Review, American Spectator and the Western Journalism Center, the parent company of WorldNetDaily.
capelza
Dug Jay
http://www.house.gov/jct/s-3-00.pdf
anon
Do you have any links there, Dug? Why do you wingers have trouble citing sources that don’t contain personal information about injured children and their families?
whippoorwill
Dug Jay says
I was wondering when the Clinton conspiracy nuts would come out of the woodwork. Yea, and Clinton was really a drug kingpin in Arkansas and had 60 people whacked including Vince Foster. Get some new material Dug Jay, your rantings are so 90’s.
Chris Johnson
You know what? Some of that is ‘oooo, I expect to be audited’ and the rest is ugly corrupt power politics. Nixon used the IRS punitively too, with even greater frequency. Bush is most likely doing so right now, he uses every OTHER branch of government for political gain. I’m not surprised. Notice that I didn’t say anything about BUSH using the IRS punitively. Separate problem.
I want to know if WINGNUTS- plain old cheeto-munching, rant-frothing, Malkin-reading basement dwelling military service evading WINGNUTS- get to use the IRS punitively. I want to know if they have any form of channel for their informants to go to the head of the line. There are lots of people trying to get their little revenges by snitching to the IRS about things both false and true, and IRS can’t follow up on all of them.
If wingnut informants actually get to cut to the front of the line, or pull IRS off of other cases to punitively audit anyone the wingnuts want audited, that would be VERY interesting, because I know I couldn’t do any such thing. I’m not surprised Bush and Clinton and Nixon etc can do such things: that’s what checks and balances are for, by DEFAULT if you’re the President you can cause a lot of trouble.
If wingnuts and freepers and such actually have a hotline to equally politically motivated administrators in IRS and can make it dance to their tune, well HOLY SOVIET RUSSIA BATMAN, that’s actually kinda new. Organized political informants calling down strikes from government bureaus? I’m used to expecting this to happen FROM high levels of government for petty political reasons, but NOT from American STASI informants.
anon
Dug don’t gots an explanation because what he believes is fucking fairytale bullshit.
Let me wager at his reply to that House report:
Bubblegum Tate
Gee, Ken, everybody else in here–even your fellow wingnuts–seems to have comprehended what John said just fine. So what’s your problem? Perhaps you could get somebody smarter than you, such as a fourth grader, to decipher the thread for you.
John Cole
I think everyone in this thread needs to cal mdown just a touch. As Jim Hemley notes, this is merely a natural progression.
They can’t help themselves. Attacking is really all they have left.
daniel rotter
Dug Jay is just upset because “faux outrage” is supposed to be the exclusive province of radical rightist retards (e.g., Obama’s non-wearing of a flag pin on his lapel, John Edwards’ expensive haircut, Obama’s endorsement of a policy for a nuclear-free world that, it turned out, was the brainchild of Republicans like George Schultz, suggestions that Hillary and/or Bill Clinton had Vincent Foster iced when the latter wasn’t even murdered to begin with, etc).
jake
You know damn well that if you don’t provide a living, breathing and preferably photogenic example of a problem (in this case lack of adequate health insurance for kids) the people who want to ignore the problem say it obviously isn’t a problem and continue to ignore it. In Malkin’s case, I couldn’t find an example of similar OUTRAGE(TM) when the Republicans held their parade of Snowflake Babies in order to demonstrate the evils of stem cell research.
However, in both cases I’m going to guess the parents had a little input into the decision. Do we need to call CPS?
John Cole
Moran has weighed in. Predictably, Democrats are to blame for Malkin and others behavior:
He’s predictable, if nothing else. Not to mention he doesn’t know wtf he is talking about regarding the house.
DougJ
Anyone want to bet that Howie Kurtz defends this?
teh
Just wanted to say excellent stuff, John. As someone who read Instapundit and a few conservoblogs for awhile and started to wonder around 2004 why the Iraq war had turned them all into nationalist warmongers it is nice to see them get the ridicule they deserve every day.
And off-topic, when the fuck will Reynolds and co. get tired of writing “Colonel Infidel has a new post up on why we must not let dissenters at home defeat us in Iraq” type posts. I realize the remaining audience those people have can’t be all that discerning, but at least try to be interesting.
John Cole
There is no way I would touch that bet, not even with Graeme Frost’s billions.
RSA
I have identified a kerning irregularity in the photos of the number on the Frosts’ house. I expect that this will settle the issue of their financial situation once and for all.
griMalkin
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE FROSTS!
23.35 – As full-fledged journalist in search of the truth, I was lurking down the u-bend of the Frosts’ gold-plated toilet in their luxurious home, hoping to collect a urine sample that could be tested for drugs. While there I was privy to a conversation that the Leftards L-O-S-E-R-S don’t want made public…
capelza
That’s not kerning, Michelle just stuck her finger in front of the lens.
Chris Johnson
I respect your wishes, John, so I’ll pointedly refrain from capitalizing anything else :D
However, I won’t calm down just yet for these two reasons:
-Bush has taken great pains to stuff every government agency he can find full of political hacks to subvert their normal operations, even science agencies whose ability to attack political enemies is nil.
-Wingnuts are acting as if it is their natural right to coordinate with each other to direct attacks by government agencies- they’ve gotten many things including to be guests of honor at the White House, which seems much more logistically difficult than calling in the IRS to single out a political enemy.
I suppose it may not be the most tightly meshed, organized thing the world’s ever seen, but this is still reminding me way too much of Soviet East Germany and the Stasi. It’s all very well if wingnuts say such things, freedom of speech and all, but I honestly do want to know very badly if Bush’s politicization of all government functions has led to a condition where the freepers can in fact call in IRS audits at will. I’m saying this isn’t a ridiculous suggestion, the channels could exist, and that could make life very interesting.
Partly just because of the psychological implications, and for that it doesn’t even matter if it’s true. If these guys really think they are Stasi informants defending mother Russia (translated to USA terms), they’re going to be very hard to deal with and they’re going to create a lot of havoc.
Chris Johnson
Note to self, if you start a line with a – as if it’s a bullet point, and end it with the same dash, it turns the line into a strikethrough :)
whippoorwill
Ninerdave says
There are 9-11 conspiracy mongers around. They are small in number but can be fairly loud and with at least some funding from somewhere. I don’t know if they can be called liberals or if they call themselves liberals. Most people consider them as I do, conspiracy nuts plain and simple.
DougJ
Check this out! There’s a billionaire in Miami whose last name is Frost. I bet he’s related to them too. Probably staked them to that million dollar Baltimore mansion then live in.
I guess you can get by on 45 grand a year…when there’s people out there with the same last name who are billionaires!
DougJ
Isn’t Graeme kind of a rich kid’s name?
I’ll tell you when I was growing up in South Buffalo, there weren’t a lot of kids named Graeme. There were Tims and Johns and Billies and a few Irish kids we called “Sully”. But no Graemes.
Was he named for his billionaire grandfather?
Kilgore Trout
Isn’t Graeme kind of a rich kid’s name?
And don’t even get me started on “Frost” — you know they’re living fat off all those inherited “Stopping by a Woods…” royalties.
Andrew
That was no finger.
DougJ
Not to mention celebrity poet Robert Frost. Whose woods these are I think I know, they’re part of the Frost family estate!
Psycheout
So nobody has a problem with raising taxes on cigarettes (regressive tax which impacts poor people) to pay for free health insurance for the middle class?
Why, it’s class warfare!
The Other Andrew
Remember, everyone–the problem isn’t the war, the abuse of power, the dishonesty, the torture, the use of the government for blatantly political purposes, the cronyism, the incompetence, the corruption, or the lost opportunities.
The problem is that the left isn’t nice enough when it comes to debating. Joe Lieberman told me so himself!
Face
Yeah, cuz a few $bill for the poor children is too much to ask when we’re spending TWELVE $BILL A MONTH in Iraq.
Seriously, you cold-hearted prick. F@ck you, Cole. Seriously, you heartless f@ck. Poor kids make good fertilizer, eh?
g
If the President had dared to be that dishonest, the press would have been all over him.
Actually, this part of the problem. The president has blatantly and cheerfully been this dishonest for 7 years and the maintstream press has given him a total pass.
ImJohnGalt
Republicans have never trotted out a rancher at a press conference who was affected by the death tax. That’s because they’d never exploit someone like that.
Or because there aren’t any.
Chris Johnson
Hey Face- you have to talk with John Cole and listen to what he has to say before f-bombing him and flipping out. The guy listens, he can listen more. Bad form dude. You’re very much not speaking for all moonbats here. We’re all about fighting over differences of opinion and differences of implementation, it sounds as if you’re expecting him to have knee-jerk PC responses.
I like the chip program and he apparently doesn’t, but I like his ability to reason way better than your kneejerk fackwittedness ;) maybe he’s right about it. (well, nah, but you deserve to be chainyanked)
Justin Slotman
I think Face just wanted John to join his f@ck mailing list.
jcricket
Clearly, the boy and his sister made it out of the womb. Of course these craven cretins don’t give a rusty rat’s ass about him!!!
These spitting snakes who constantly and chronically publicly declare their self-annointment in piety are the very ones Christ warned about two millennia ago. Apparently, they are not finished “getting their reward” yet. We don’t need to wonder at whose expense.
jcricket — the real one
Face
Nah, not so much. See, the gov’t’s got a ton of money. One of the very few honorable things it could do is help out the poor and below average families who cannot afford health care for their kids. I, personally, can find zero honorable reasons why an adult is incapable of wanting to help out poor children. It’s about the most disturbing and unsettling things about which an adult could boast. Perhaps I dropped a few too many f-bombs…I nonetheless find it repulsive that–after all the dead presidents we’ve dropped overseas–that John finds it unacceptable to offer poor families the ability to get a cast on that broken arm without having to go bankrupt.
rachel
Face seems to think the half-assed way we currently take care of the poor & sick is good enough. Nope, no radical overhauls for him, no siree, Bob, and he’ll say “F@ck you,” to anyone who says otherwise.
Face
I might as well get this all in before I’m banned come morning:
It’s a reflexive response from die-hard Rs to oppose gov’t interference and spending on almost anything save bullets and bombs. In a normal world, I could almost understand that the increase in spending on gov’t programs is a slippery slope.
However, we no longer have that world. We have a world were–literally, make up a number–is asked for for “the wars in Af and Ir” and it’s granted. Like play money. Bush could ask for triple what he did this year and get it. Congress doesn’t flinch. So, perspective is now required. It thus becomes morally impossible to justify spending 500 bill in Iraq but oppose about 7% on that for poor….CHILDREN. R’s are basically head-nodding for completely indiscriminate spending overseas but stiffing the most vernerable domestic families.
This is what I find so offensive.
EL
Psycheout Says:
Nope Psycheout, no problem at all. Cigarette smokers can quit smoking if it gets too expensive. Unfortunately those who need health care can’t do very well without it. I’ve been in medicine for 25 years, and I’d love to see poor people, middle class people – heck, any people – unable to afford cigarettes. The savings to the health care system would be tremendous, since cigarette related illness is extremely costly.
Some examples: http://www.news-medical.net/?id=1989
http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/13/3/264
Face
You have me 180 degrees backwards. I favor an extension on the coverage of poor families. I cannot comment on any other solutions, only that SCHIP is important and necessary.
Chris Johnson
Yeah, but if you reason with John about that he basically agrees with you- I think he’s more about the ‘just please don’t try to do it incrementally’ aspect, which is worth thinking about. If I got to pick, I too would rather totally replace healthcare with another system than try to come up with incremental things that are still going to make big pharma and big insurance happy.
I just would immediately also accept the incremental approach too, and John balks at that.
teh
It is terrible that someone would use (a 12 year old boy / a four star general) to defend their position on (SCHIP / the war in Iraq) rather then defend it themselves on the merits. How cynical to think they can avoid criticism by choosing a messenger that they think people will be afraid to attack. We need a congressional resolution against this.
Psycheout
Great, you nanny state authoritarian. Get rid of the minimum wage for starters.
OniHanzo
You don’t even have to swing a dead cat THAT far to get the same fare from the Republican side.
Witness the kid working for the Bush administration, something which I’m all but positive Malkin is on record as being equally disturbed and infuriated by as the Frost family.
From The Times:
And from Noah’s own domain:
That sound you hear is right wingers building luxury homes of hypocrisy up their own deranged asses.
the real question
why aren’t all these wingnuts in Iraq?
Anne Laurie
I ask those folks why be against a child healthcare program funded by a cigarette tax?
Dubya’s daughter is marrying a tobacco heir — it’s his early wedding present to Jenna.
Seriously, can’t we revive the superstition that denigrating another’s misfortune, like for instance getting outraged at the termerity of a gradeschooler willing “choose” brain injury just in order to “cheat hardworking taxpayers”, might attract a kharmic payback?
Or, if one prefers the Christian phrasing, remind people that Jesus said “Suffer the little children”, not “The little children should suffer”?
TenguPhule
The Dummy’s Guide to MM:
Stalking Democrats and people I don’t care about, okay!
Posting Common Knowledge about Republicans, Treason!
TenguPhule
I love how Republicans attack the only thing that keeps most of them from being slaves in all but name.
TenguPhule
Fixed for the Moran.
TenguPhule
Social Security.
EPA.
FDA.
IRS.
When properly funded and not screwed up by Republicans trying to destroy them, they work just fine.
Zuzu
Another great, insightful post. I’m going to bookmark your site.
I had to hold my nose going through some of the stuff the Freepers were posting…omigawd it was scary, creepy stuff. And of course Limbo has picked it up basically word for word without checking a single fact.
I am not a conservative, but am always pleased to know there are still plenty of sane, thoughtful conservatives out there. Keep up the good work.
Zuzu
“Stalkin’ Malkin.”
Perfect. Suits her to a T. Hope it gets passed around.
Zuzu
AK: “So when you bring a private family into the spotlight and use them as a prop for your political theather, your opponents can’t look into whether their story checks out? You don’t actually believe that, do you?”
——————————————–
Except that Graeme’s “story” was simply that he was hurt and SCHIP helped him. Both true.
And so he asked GWB to please sign the bill so other children could be helped out. Nothing questionable there.
That’s it. That’s the extent to which we need to know whether Graeme’s story “checks out” – because, after all, he is making no other claims whatsoever.
And the indisputable fact is that his family qualified for SCHIP in Maryland. End of “story.”
over_educated
*Run’s up*
Whew… Hi guys, got here late, what did I miss?
Xenos
Nothing, apparently.
Just a lot of straw men fighting over mixed metaphors with razor-sharp anecdotes. Typical Malkinfest.
over_educated
Did someone bring up the Clenis? If so I may have to actually read through the 300+ posts for the flava, becuase that’s bound to be some good wingnuttery.
sparky
What! Where’s the outrage? I’m outraged! How will I know I’m alive if I can’t feel teh hate?
Ooops.
/slinks away
Bombadil
Well, that should do it. John and Tim’s traffic numbers have hit their targets for the first two weeks of the month.
All it takes is a cat thread and a Malkin thread (and maybe one or two about Macs), and traffic spikes. This covers for the Steeler threads and some of Tim’s more arcane postings (which are interesting, but don’t really lend themselves to comments).
When can we expect the return of Friday beer blogging?
libarbarian
Quick – someone get the Malkinites some pitchforks and torches.
RSA
This thread evokes memories of an older Balloon Juice, one not yet run by John the Apostate. (Not that any principles have been renounced, but rather only support for “movement” conservatives.)
Bombadil
Yup. Right down to its degeneration into meta-snark (including my own posting). Not as much fun as the Great Jane Hamshers of the Left Dustup, maybe, but it does harken back to some good times. Gets the blood flowing again, you know?
whippoorwil
Complements of world renowned wingnut sociologist Mark Steyn
NRO
over_educated
I believe that Malkin’s persecution of a 12 year old was her attempt to direct attention away from Rush Limbaugh’s recent antics.
Xenos
What ever happened to Jame Hamsher of Left?
(goes to FDL)
Yikes! Frist and Santorum jokes! Patrick Fitzgerald worship! Serious need for new shtick!
Patrick Carroll
As I understand it, they’re not on scholarship, they’re being paid for by their EVP grandfather, so the family is an issue here.
There are worse things than liquidating assets in order to cover unexpected bills. What’s so bad with selling the half-million dollar house, buying a quarter-million house on a mortgage, and taking the freed-up cash to pay the bills? Seems to me a more moral action than asking the government to put a gun to my head and demand I chip (as it were) in for their medical coverage.
In any event, I think we’re going to get socialized health care, whether we want it or not. Another step along the road to total decadence. Having grown up in Europe with socialized medicine, let me just say that it delivers utterly crappy results.
Zifnab
Is it me, or does Malkinite sound like some rock you’d pick off a corpse in WoW? Would Malkinite be more or less valiable than Thorium, Adamatine, or Mithril?
RSA
Funny; the top posts of BJ and FDL this morning (9:45 EST) are on the same topic, with about the same take. You might think that the two sites were interchangeable, but that thought would probably make both proprietors’ heads explode.
Punchy
It’s not polite or professional to wish bodily harm on Malkin, so I’ll resist. Barely.
George B.
Why don’t we ever hear the good news about stalking 12-year-olds?
At least if Michelle Malkin is stalking my kid, I’ll know for sure he isn’t hanging out with drug dealers or Socialists. If he fakes his brain injury, she’ll catch that, too.
George B.
So stalking them is okay. In fact, it’s a moral prerogative.
Those children are complete assholes for having parents unwilling to move out of their recently-gentrified neighborhood, and back into the ghetto. Better they be forced to do that than that my wallet be touched. Because it’s easy for me to pontificate on the morality of others when I’d rather little kids move next door to a crackhouse than pay an extra $20 a year in taxes to pay for their medical expenses.
So move to Iraq. I hear they have a free market there, and security conditions are rapidly improving.
Bombadil
From an article at ThinkProgress:
Not sure where TP got their info re: the scholarship, but then I have no idea where you got the info about the “EVP grandfather”, either.
Bombadil
Sorry about the double post. Tried to correct a spelling error.
Punchy
Translation? Anyone? Bueller?
Bombadil
I assumed “executive vice president”, but have no idea where it came from.
RSA
As evidenced by life expectancy and general health indicators? In my experience, having received health care in Germany and the U.S., I’d say that there are pros and cons for individual results. Paying for major medical treatments in the U.S., though, has been significantly more of a pain in the ass for me.
Bombadil
“Deadbeat poster children”? “Always witty and observant Mark Steyn”?
I smell a spoof.
Fruitbat Jones
Don’t you remember the Black Plague? It almost destroyed Yer’up. Millions took dirt naps. Yet America, with its exceptional healthcare, didn’t even have one death.
Europe can stuff that in their socialized pipe and socially smoke it using their liberal drug policies.
Bob In Pacifica
The rich and the brayers for the rich cannot forgive the rich who actually show compassion for the poor, unless it’s compassion for a poor person who’s died in the service of the rich (you know, dead soldiers). They really hate John Edwards because he can own a big house and worry about people without houses. They shot JFK and RFK. Class-traitors are the most hated because they are the most dangerous because they have money behind them.
IanY77
Hooo boy. Right Wing Stalker just posted Malkin’s address and a photo of her home. Things are going to get ugly.
Punchy
This will NOT end well.
I suspect we will witness all-time record levels of spewed vitriol and Cheetos consumption today.
Psycheout
Who or what is “Right Wing Stalker?”
IanY77
My bad, it was the name of the post, not the blog name. I’ll leave it to the reader to access the blog. I don’t want to get John and Tim in trouble for linking to this.
I am ambivalent about this. The dude’s posted her address, phone number and picture of the house. I know it’s viscerally satisfying to say “what goes around comes around, bitch”, but two wrongs don’t make a right. However, Michelle was despicable to include the description of the bumper sticker on the back of the Frost’s car (personally identifying info, should her hoard of mouth breathers want to come down to “visit” the Frosts). She calls herself a journalist, and then violates one of the most sacred rules of journalism (don’t leave the subject of the story open to reprisal).
Patrick Carroll
Has it occurred to anyone that the family in question is quite atypical, and yet is being used as the vehicle for a general solution to be imposed on all of us? Should the families of Executive Vice Presidents qualify for welfare?
This has the feel of an Andrew Sullivan argument: any handy cudgel is a good cudgel.
Lee
Because then they would have to actually pay the mortgage.
Pay off the new house then use the remaining money to pay bills.
Bombadil
Has it occured to you that they are not, in fact, atypical, and represent an entire class of people who are one catastrophic accident away from losing everything — including children who could very well have died had they not been able to access decent health care because of the S-CHIP program?
Lee
A google search of “Right Wing Stalker” Blog
Example”
brings up Malkin’s site as #4 LOL
Very very funny.
whippoorwil
P. Carroll says,
The point we’re making here is, alright so you don’t like the government helping kids be insured, then go after the state of Maryland or Harry Reid or liberals in general. The kid and his family qualify for S-CHIP by current law so don’t go after the family with pea brain bloggers harassing these people by personally stalking them at home and at work.
The reason we’re so pissed is because this has happened before with wingnut bloggers, especially Malkin.
laneman
It imposes a 3 day 100% int debuff.
Patrick Carroll
“I am ambivalent about this.”
In a “two wrongs make a right” sort of way?
On a related note, I find it interesting that it’s the left bringing up the notion of physical violence. I see no postings of that type elsewhere.
The Other Steve
I AM THE LEFT!
If you are going to accuse me of physical violence, at least have the decency of speaking to my face.
My address:
1313 Mockingbird Lane
chopper
as i’ve said before, untold billions of dollars to build hospitals in iraq and provide health care for iraqs==strong, conservative foreign policy.
35 billion to provide health insurance to american kids==communism.
so malkin and her ilk think iraqis are more important than americans. which is funny, as the horrible things they’ve said about muslims lead me to believe that they must really hate americans.
then i see this sort of behaviour, and i’m convinced that i’m right.
The Other Steve
Wait, I thought he was the Grandson of a VP. Are you saying he’s been promoted?
Was the family notified that the husband got a new job?
chopper
i’m looking through your window, and i gotta ask, how much did you pay for that fridge?
cleek
do tell, Dr Freud! what does that observation say to you ?
The Other Steve
It was a Russian movie by Director Andrew Tarkovsky. A stalker is a man who guides people through the post-apocalyptic wilderness.
It’s a quite good movie, they just recently made the concept into a video game here in the states.
I suppose one could consider the right-wing as being those who live in The Zone. They certainly don’t live in our reality.
The Other Steve
Uncle Fester got it for us.
The Other Steve
I did a google for EVP, and apparently it is Electronic Voice Phenomenon.
It’s a paranormal thing. Ghosts speaking to the living, that sort of thing.
I think what they’re saying here is Michelle Malkin sees dead people.
Patrick Carroll
Hi, The Other Steve,
The child in question is the grandson of an Executive VP of Bendix Corp. As such, he is the member of the family of an Executive VP.
You went to a government school, didn’t you?
===
Hi, cleek,
IMHO, the left always feels free to indulge in violence in order to achieve its utopian dreams.
Bobby Boy
The Michelle Malkin wing of the Republican party IS the Republican party.
lou
This is so much irony overload my brain is about to explode.
The rightwingers are criticizing this guy for being a small business entrepreneur? And the mother for staying home with the kids? And getting their kids on scholarships to better *private* schools?
Also their detective work sucks. And that shows that Michelle Malkin is no journalist. If she had ever worked at your basic 101, shoe leather, meat and potatoes kind of reporting, she would know how to go online and look up what the Frosts paid for their house 16 years ago. Or if the online records don’t go back far enough, if she could bother to go up and walk around their neighborhood, she could make a detour to the Baltimore County Courthouse and look up the plat records. It’s not hard at all.
And god, if she lives in the DC area, doesn’t she know about street parking? just because a car is in front of house, doesn’t mean it belongs to the person living there.
Of course, having an SUV is a tax write-off for a carpenter, but whatever.
scarshapedstar
Best. Flashback. Ever.
By the way, did I hear someone say that Michelle Maglalang was an anchor baby? No? Nobody said that Michelle Maglalang was an anchor baby? Damn.
Well, Michelle Maglalang was an anchor baby.
Xenos
What is a typical S-CHIP recipient? It is a program intended to cover children from low-asset/moderate income families who otherwise can not be insured.
Low asset? check – one or two inexpensive cars, illiquid house in marginal neighborhood.
Moderate income? check – small business-man in flat economy, has to make payroll before paying self.
Can’t otherwise be insured? Check – these kids have disabilities that require ongoing treatment. You can’t go out and buy family coverage that will cover pre-existing conditions like this. No insurance company can make a profit by doing so – call it greed, call it the fiduciary duty to stockholders, call it market failure — whatever. It is reality. So deal with it. “Deal with it’ means care for your neighbor, not slandering him.
If conservatives go blocking bandaids like S-Chip they are just hurrying the date at which the general population is completely disgusted with our insurance system and demands universal, single payer insurance. Come the revolution, some business will be first against the wall…
As for Executive Vice Presidents, no welfare system I have ever heard of imputes income from grandparents to grandchildren. Or from children to parents, for that matter, as when I was a Medicaid caseworker I met a lot of upper-middle-class children signing their parents up for taxpayer-subsidized nursing homes.
The Other Steve
Feel sorry for her signfigant other(we’re making no comment on the suitability of Ann Coulter as a husband).
Stress from bad relationships can lead to heart disease
over_educated
“Has it occurred to anyone that the family in question is quite atypical, and yet is being used as the vehicle for a general solution to be imposed on all of us? Should the families of Executive Vice Presidents qualify for welfare?”
Has it occurred to you that the social/financial status of extended family is not considered in determining benefits or level of wealth?
So do you suggest that everyone with a rich great aunt, is, defacto rich as well?
Seriously, we do not know the particulars of their relationship to the grandparents (it may be estranged for a variety of good reasons, case in point, my college girlfriend who was repeatedly molested as a child by a rich grandparent). The point is, it is none of your damn business and the fact that the nutters have decided to impose their own form of “means-testing” (which has been already shown to be demonstrably flawed) on a twelve year who has serious medical needs resulting form a car crash is indicative of why the Republican party, and the Right in general is rapidly becoming a parody of a parody.
Suggesting that people sell their house to finance healthcare for their children isn’t going to play well with most Americans, not matter how you try to sugarcoat it. I would prefer not to live in your vision of an Ayn Rand-like dystopia, where apparently its reasonable to be forced into the Hobsons choice of homelessness and providing your child healthcare.
The Other Steve
My grandfather was a farmer, quite successful actually. My Uncle was actually President of an insurance company. Not just EVP, but a full on President.
Neither of them pays my bills though. I tried to send my phone bill to them, but they sent it back with a note saying “Who the fuck are you?”
Then again he’s dead… my grandfather, not my uncle. He’s not dead. Well, my other uncle is, but not eh uncle I was talking about earlier. But anyway, since my grandfather died, I stopped receiving Christmas cards from him. You’d think I’d at least receive a postcard or two from him, but apparently because he didn’t die in Srebreinca that’s not possible.
I didn’t get any inheritance from him either. Well wait, that’s not quite true. I did receive a US Savings Bond that he’d taken out when I was born. I guess that makes me incredibly wealthy! WOO HOO! I have a US Savings Bond, and you don’t!
Eat that sucker!
cleek
wait, are you a parody troll ?
The Other Steve
I AM THE LEFT!
My Utopian dream is a world where Michelle Malkin sits naked in my bathtub at night, reading poetry to me in my sleep.
I’m not sure how violence would be helpful in achieving this. Perhaps you could offer some advice here?
chopper
not many people realize that mcveigh and rudolph were actually leftists.
IanY77
Anytime Malkin links disapprovingly to anything, the target of her ire gets death threats. For example:
http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2006/04/future_imperfec.html#comments
http://everydaystranger.net/archives/190301.php
http://www.michellemalkinisanidiot.com/?p=269
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/14/judge-in-libby-trial-receiving-threats/
http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/442
http://emergencybackupdog.blogspot.com/2006/04/malkin-and-her-slack-jawed-followers.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/28/143854/703
http://www.liberalavenger.com/jesse-malkin-allegedly-savagely-beats-student-photographer/
http://malkin-watch.blogspot.com/2005/11/barmy-batty-berserk-bonkers-cracked.html
All of 2 mins with “The Google”. I can’t imagine where one would get the idea that some conservatives substitute death threats for real debate. Saying that it’s a purely liberal construct lets me know that it’s not a case of “Is Patrick lying or is he stupid?”, but rather, “does he live on the same planet as the rest of us”?
Likewise, she says:
“Asking questions and subjecting political anecdotes to scrutiny are what journalists should be doing.”
Uh huh.
Heres the Society of Professional Journalists code (relevant sections):
Minimize Harm
Ethical journalists treat sources, subjects and colleagues as human beings deserving of respect.
Journalists should:
* Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by news coverage. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects. […]
* Recognize that gathering and reporting information may cause harm or discomfort. Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance.
* Recognize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than do public officials and others who seek power, influence or attention. Only an overriding public need can justify intrusion into anyone’s privacy.[…]
Please fill me in on the “overriding public need” to tell me what bumper sticker was on the back of the Frosts car.
From Georgia10:
By reposting the contact information knowing full well she was to elicit death threats and attack, Malkin is condoning the actions of her readers. Of course, scared Michelle posts a “disclaimer,”, skirting any responsibility for the actions of her attack dogs. But if she knows the threats are coming from her readers, such a disclaimer has a wink, wink, don’t do it effect.
Amen
jcricket
Won’t someone please think of the children! Or at least the snowflake babies. It’s ok to trot them out or bring out a line of children in defense of them, right? IOKIYAR.
The thing I like best about this episode is that it perfectly highlights the best (I mean that literally) instincts of the modern Republican party. There is nothing they are better at than coordinated attacks leveled against anyone who “stands in their way”, no matter what the cost (to them or others). Former generals, wounded combat veterans, the disabled, children, doesn’t matter.
The other good thing is that 70%+ of America is fundamentally opposed to the Republican agenda. That means they’re feeding only the base with the red meat of attacks/smears. And the base has a never-ending appetite for this stuff. In fact, after years of being fed, they are perhaps even more hungry for more disgusting smear tactics (witness the evolution of right-wing blogs for an example). So enjoy leading yourself off a cliff Republicans. America will be better for it.
I think people have woken up to the fact there is no one the Republicans won’t smear in their quest to retain power, and that power is their only goal. As someone else more succinctly put it:
The Other Steve
I once saw a guy at Lowes driving a Jetta that he’d converted into a pickup truck or sorts. It was really quite clever. He’d cut out the back passenger area and then with a combination of welding and plywood, and converted the back of the car into a covered pickup truck.
It sort of looked like a bastard child of an El Camino and a Volkswagen Thing.
Oh yeah, the guy was like a plumber or something, cause he was loading pipe into the back of this car/truck.
either that, or maybe he operated a bomb making factory, and needed the pipe for his centrifuge to process the uranium. Didn’t ask him.
jcricket
John, don’t you think the metaphor that Jim used (“They wanted a war. Now they want everything to be a war. Any war”) is very 1984? The idea of perpetual war to keep the public is servitude (i.e. eating up all the proceeds of the economy to keep our standard of living down so the elites can continue to live in luxury/we won’t revolt). It’s kind of sickening.
At least your “anti-taxers” are just fundamentally selfish (I got mine, now f* off), not evil, like the Republican party has become.
The Other Steve
In order for someone to stand in your way, don’t you have to be going somewhere? Like maybe have a purpose in mind? A direction to follow?
These guys just seem to be spinning in circles. The only thing that unites them, is they hate America.
The Other Steve
I think you mean right. The left is too busy achieving their utopian goals through violence to be able to spend any time attacking people.
libarbarian
There is something fucked up about the notion that:
“because this child was exploited by Senate Democrats, he (not those who exploited him) is now fair game for hounding
Whats next, are they going to stalk animals that enviros use in their propaganda? “That bear became fair game the moment he went on TV”.
Everyone becomes “fair game” the moment they help TEH LEPHT!!!!!!!
The Other Steve
This is fun. I gotta install one of these Malkinites in my home.
I wonder how much that costs? Can I get a government grant for it?
Tim F.
Right! Exactly! Like for example…uh…
Invading Iraq was sort of a utopian dream. Knock over Saddam and a thousand flowers will bloom on mount Bushiana! Freedom! Democracy! Candy! That counts, right?
chopper
nice, IanY77.
apparently having a blog and declaring yourself a journalist does not make it so. who’da thunk it.
The Other Steve
My new utopian dream is for Michelle Malkin to be laying on a bear skin rug reading poetry to me in my sleep.
Preferably Russian poetry, maybe some Pushkin.
Don’t tell my girlfriend. I’ll get in trouble. :-)
The Other Steve
You take this far too seriously.
As THE LEFT, I just want to tell you to chill man. Take a break. Have some fun. Everybody should have their very own Malkinite installed in their home.
Tim F.
Wait, I got it now. Pat Carroll is talking about the notorious Code pink militia. Those guys are so badass that everybody, right and left, is afraid to even talk about them. But I’m not.
The Other Steve
I know one of the leaders of the Code Pink militia.
She’s a registered nurse. So you better watch out, she’s a mean bitch and she’ll make you drop your pants.
Perhaps that is what has Patrick so afraid? He’s afraid of having to drop his pants?
The Other Steve
So nobody answered my question of how do i get a Malkinite installed in my home? Do you plug it in, or is it solar powered?
PK
A question for the right wingers? Why do you love Bush so much? Come on people! Stalking the family of brain damaged kids! You are going to lose this one! George is not worth it.
How ever low you sink, whichever gutter you crawl into for his sake, he is still not going to give you a BJ!
Punchy
I’d put those DSL’s to better use than reading out loud…
lectric lady
PK,
How do you give somebody a Balloon Juice???
cleek
you don’t want that. it’s cheap, hollow and unstable.
IanY77
you don’t want that. it’s cheap, hollow and unstable.
Well, that’s a giant heaping of win right there.
Punchy
Code Pink is actually Malkin’s pet name.
RSA
Hey, some rightwingers march around with poster-sized photos of what they call dead babies, to help make their point. (Dead soldiers being off-limits, of course.) Fair game, I guess, though I have no idea what those dead babies ever did to them.
chopper
the politico in me wants the goop to attack brain damaged kids, but then i ‘remember the children’.
Patrick Carroll
The importance of family decreases in direct proportion to the importance of the welfare state. Pity that.
I mean, if you’ve taken the time and effort to reproduce and nurture your children, should you not also take an interest in your children’s children? Or are we animals, to be raised to the point of self-sufficiency and then turned loose? The rise of the welfare state is forcing us in that direction.
As people are taxed at higher and higher rates in order to provide welfare for others, the more they’re inclined to depend on that welfare themselves. It’s a small step from there to fobbing grandparents and children off on the welfare state.
There was a time when extended families lived together, or in close proximity. I can remember, as a child, both my grandfather and grandmother dying in the house where they raised my mother, who lived across the road from the house where she’d been brought up. Little health welfare in that day and time (late 60’s Ireland), so families took care of their own. This is less and less the case in Ireland, and I see similar trends here.
Thus it is that people in this very thread suggest that the grandparents have no interest, nor responsibility, to the generations they created. Well, shame on you.
Xenos
Legally, grandparents have no more responsibility to the kids than a stranger does.
This is news to you?
George B.
True. If not for Social Security, everyone would still be having 8-10 kids, so that there’d be someone to put them up in their homes when they were old and infirm. If only 4 or 5 of those kids survived childhood, you were doing okay.
You’re pretty new at this spoofing game, aren’t you? You have to lay the groundwork a little better first. Say outright, “These liberals have grandparents that don’t care for their grandkids. That’s because of government programs, which effectively cut the emotional tie between grandpa and grandkid.” Let’s see the liberals argue their way around THAT assertion!
Do the Police Department, public roads, and a sewage system count as welfare? If so, I completely agree with you.
There was a time when extended families lived together all their lives, waging war on other extended families for slights against honor. Those were called “tribes” or “clans”, and most would argue that their departure from western civilization was a good thing. A quick perusal of “Angela’s Ashes” would quickly lead one to the conclusion that Ireland itself is better off now than it was back in the halcyon days of clannish impoverishment.
See, you’re doing the spoof backwards. You’re supposed to start out with this point, not lead up to it. This is a good spoof-point, and leads to all sorts of fun offshoot points that you could’ve brought up later in the post if you’d started with it, instead of ending with it. “The War On Christmas is caused by programs like the S-Chip program, because when grandparents care less about their grandkids, they buy them fewer Christmas presents, and Christmas loses out” is only one of many possible offshoots of your spoofalicious contention that families stop giving a shit about each other the minute they get charity from the government instead of from each other.
All in all, you get a B- for your efforts so far. But keep it up. You have a lot of good spoof ideas, and that means once you’ve polished your style you’ll go far in this game.
Patrick Carroll
Dear Xenos,
And on that note, I leave you with the difference between the left and the right.
Patrick
—
Xenos
Fact, enter stage left: Wingnuttia, exeunt.
over_educated
“There was a time when extended families lived together, or in close proximity. I can remember, as a child, both my grandfather and grandmother dying in the house where they raised my mother, who lived across the road from the house where she’d been brought up. Little health welfare in that day and time (late 60’s Ireland), so families took care of their own. This is less and less the case in Ireland, and I see similar trends here.
Thus it is that people in this very thread suggest that the grandparents have no interest, nor responsibility, to the generations they created. Well, shame on you.”
Nice try at the stawman big guy, but that ain’t going to work here. We are not saying that granparents should have “no interest, nor responsibility” in future generations. What we are saying is they are not the legal guardians of said generations. Are yo u suggesting that grandparents and extended family be mandated to pay child support for children they did not directly sire?
W do not know the particulars of this family. Maybe the grandfather was estranged for a reason, maybe he died penniless after spending all his money on hookers and gambling, maybe he disowned his daughter after he found out she was marrying a carpenter, maybe he was just a complete bastard. You cannot gauge the “means” of an individual based on their extended family as that family has no legal obligation to support that child. Parents do. Are you advocating they do? If so I’m sure you will be happy to pay for the education and medical care of grand-nieces you have never met.
Trying to dig up dirt on a 12 year old kid who got in a car accident is just poor behavior. And it is even more ridiculuous to make assumptions about the means of that child based on extended family. Did you also peek into the windows of folks in your “small town,” just to make sure they weren’t cheating the taxpayer?
Tim F.
And the difference between modern and premodern civilization. Fun!
Bombadil
Somehow or another, I don’t think holding up rural 1960’s Ireland as a shining example of utopian culture is such a great idea.
So your mother lived across the street from the house where she grew up. Did she have any siblings? Did they also live in the house across the street from where they grew up? Must have been pretty crowded there.
whippoorwill
America is not a welfare state and never has been. It has a social safety net so when bad things happen to families they are not living in card board boxes, especially children. Remember the Great Depression, well it was your dog eat dog ideology that caused that. Progressives had to fix your sides “let them rot” philosophy on the poor, while we watch your corporate welfare state crush ordinary people.
When I was more of understanding person toward people like you, I would sincerely wish you well. Now it wouldn’t bother me a bit if you and your kind suffer some of life’s hard blows, just to see you show up at a welfare office to save your sorry ass.
Xenos
I gave up spoofing with names from bad guys from Dickens novels months ago. In honor of Patrick Carroll I think I will return as Mr. M’Choakumchild, or maybe Smallweed would be better.
Charles had Patrick’s number 150 years ago.
sparky
Looking forward to the GOP Grandparent state!
Mine are er, departed. So cough up a check, GOP. Or small bills. Benjamins are fine.
George B.
Can we PLEASE talk about how Medicaid is costing American children millions of dollars in Christmas presents? As grandparents stop caring about their grandchildren, they spend their money on present to the secular atheist government instead of on their Christian families.
If we don’t repeal Social Security now, we’ll soon enter an age when the government takes all your money through death taxes, and in which celebrating Christmas is punished as a hate crime.
George B.
That’s because you failed to read “Angela’s Ashes” as if it were written by Horatio Alger. It DID have a happy ending, after all. The kid got to be American, and come to America again and experience the benefits of free market capitalism.
rawshark
We’re not europe. Next argument.
Punchy
A cursory perusal of a biology textbook tells me, yes…yes, we are.
jcricket
That was sort of my point. The grand unifying theory of totalitariasm is that the hate itself is an end that lets you keep power. Your ideology hardly matters, because in the end all you care about is keeping yourself in power and keeping the masses sated or at least busy. That was the whole point of the 1984 quote.
Oh, and to answer your other question
You have to install it yourself (self-reliance) and it’s powered by the “clean coal” generator you need to install under your deck. Don’t forget to insulate the generator with asbestos and fire-proof your deck with creosote.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
I can’t believe I read through nearly 400 posts and not one contained the address made by the 12 year old boy, Graeme Frost:
The people who are attacking the Frost family are bad people. It’s not a difference of opinion or values, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh (and their fans) are bad people, plain and simple.
RSA
Doesn’t everyone understand that we have to know all those details (or assume the worst, if it involves any effort to find out) if we are to pass judgment on this family, to judge whether they’re worthy of public support?
jcricket
Not only that, it doesn’t deliver crappy results. On nearly (but not all) every measurable and important health statistic, industrialized countries with nationalized healthcare do better than America does. We do better mainly at some highly specialized stuff (which I hope we continue to do better at). Don’t forget that customer satisfaction with healthcare is leaps and bounds better in Europe than in America. Even the most vigorous critics of each system, when asked, would never give up their form of healthcare for ours – they merely want some tweaks (makes sense, no system is perfect). Oh, and the most expensive nationalized healthcare (Switzerland) still manages to cost about 1/2 what ours does.
Taiwan, which switched healthcare about 10 years ago, offers a great example of how you can turn on the spigot of government-funded universal healthcare without turning off economic growth at all. The opposition had all the same fears and trumped-up arguments, all of which turned out to be false.
Plus, all the common myths about Europe (and their bad economies) are false. In conclusion, we have something to learn from Europe. Shocker. But no surprise the party lead by the president who had never left the country before he was elected doesn’t think so.
Patrick Carroll
Hi all,
First off, given that this is a pretty lossy medium, IMHO it’s quite difficult to “get” anyone’s “number”.
I’m not attempting to troll or incite. I’m offering my opinions, most of which come from reflection on direct life experience. The extent to which you feel the need to mock or discount is a reflection on you, not me.
For me, the bottom line is that social problems have always existed, and will continue to exist. In the words of one great man, “The poor will always be with you.” That said, what I see now is the replacement of existing social problems with new ones caused by that very replacement, but with higher taxation thrown in for good measure.
And at root, all that’s really happening is that government is gaining more power over all of us. Ho hum.
Patrick
—
Beady Eye Guy
Hey Psycheout,
I am quite noble aren’t I? This country has given me everything I have. It allowed me to work hard to become successful. Sorry that you think we all are picking your pocket. So basically you believe I should pay my fair share and you shouldn’t?
Why be part of society then?
Beady Eye Guy
Smoking is a choice, getting sick usually isn’t…
libarbarian
The REAL question is:
How can Colbert parody this best?
I think he might want to Investigate the real Smokey the Bear.
Did he REALLY survive that fire? Did his parent REALLY die in it? How do we know this isn’t some scheme concocted by his liberal welfare-mooching parents who used the fire to trick txpayers into paying to raise their kid while they went on “living it up” in the forest? Why are we raising him when he has sharp teetch and claws and can catch his own food?
libarbarian
For me, the bottom line is that social problems have always existed, and will continue to exist. In the words of one great man, “The poor will always be with you.”
There is no more clear example of a fake quote thrown into the bible by sycophantic bishops trying to kiss up to the Roman Emperors.
Yeah it’s in the bible – but only a pseudo-Christian fool would think Jesus actually said it.
Beady Eye Guy
Ron Paul was talking the other day about this SCHIP program. He stated that while he disagrees with it in principle, he would find ways to cut how much we spend overseas and invest in children’s health if he were President.
Now if a constitutionalist like Paul is saying this, why are so many on the right getting so worked up? He clearly has told anybody who will listen that he would never allow anybody to be out in the cold. Even he knows you can’t drown the gov’t in the bathtub since it can still do good things for ALL Americans.
Willem van Oranje
Ah, another “phony European”.
RSA
…unless you’re cutting off the SCHIP program; then they’ll be against you.
whippoorwill
Carroll
I don’t want the government to gain power over all of us. Our health care system, with and without health insurance, is crumbling under the weight of runaway greed. Health care is not like choosing to buy a car, stereo, or any other kind of widget people don’t really need. Health care is a life and death service. You get sick and need health care and it costs too much you die. Government shouldn’t be providing things people simply want. But I believe there are commodities that are necessary for people to keep breathing, and health care is at the top of that list.
If you are so worried about government gaining more power over us, why don’t you direct your disapproval to Bush’s Unitary president theory, or wiretapping without warrants, or all other sorts of violations of our constitutional rights by the Bush administration.
Why on god’s green earth would you choose children’s health care to draw the line on government intrusions into our lives.
Bubblegum Tate
From Graeme “Kid Millionaire” Frost’s address:
Oh geez, I smell the next wingnut meme: “Liberals probably wanted to MURDER Grame and his sister while they were in comas just like they MURDERED TERRI SCHIAVO! The fact that Graeme and his sister came out of their comas proves that Terri Schiavo was just five minutes from jumping out of her bed and performing show tunes before she was MURDERED!”
Rick Taylor
Let them eat cake.
cleek
they’re desperate. Bush vetoing this a giant high-profile political defeat for the Republicans. the cheerleaders don’t like that and so they need a way to make it look like Bush is doing something good. so, they’re trying to make the program look like a waste of money. kids be damned.
Fruitbat
Actually, you left out one other possible condition for criticism: that your opinions are wrongheaded or represent a limited view of the world and of reality. Some have chosen to respond mockingly, and that’s a by-product of the nature of political blogs, sadly. But “discounting” your statements is more a reflection on your statements themselves than on the people who comment. In essence, you’re saying, “since I experience things this way, they can’t be counter-argued. If you attempt to, you’re wrong.”
It’s not much different than when someone defends their myopic viewpoint with “I call it like I see it,” which strikes me as incredibly closed-minded. If that’s really the bottom line for you, then you need to find a way to see more.
Jake
Fixed.
Rick Taylor
Just another point. These people on the right are seriously dangerous. They got Jamil Hussein exposed and jailed for talking to an AP reporter. They went after Beauchamp, and one of them advocated sendin e-mails to others in his company,and joked about how he’d watch his back. If you say something they don’t like, you will be in their cross hairs, and Lord help you if you’re at all vulnerable. Schiavo was just the beginning; it’s an unbroken trail.
Rick Taylor
P.S.
But thank God the Senate had the presence of mind to condemn that horrible MoveOn ad. Sure the right wing goes about sliming private citizens and exposing people to get arrested, but at least they don’t make a nasty pun on a general’s name. That would be beyond the pale.
Punchy
Dunno ’bout this in the States….It would almost certainly drive down the salaries of docs and pharmacists…which would be a huge political hit. Which would affect, for example, what med and pharm schools charge for tuition, which affects the sizes of student loans, affecting lending institutions, etc etc etc…
George B.
Especially when you’re spoofing, it’s very offensive to have someone respond by calling you out on your spoof.
This guy just argued that government health care causes grandparents to love their grandchildren less, and you actually think he’s serious?
Gekkobear
Willem van Oranje Says:
Having grown up in Europe with socialized medicine, let me just say that it delivers utterly crappy results.
Ah, another “phony European”.
Gotcha, actually do research and verify whether or not someone is telling the truth = EEEEVIL invasive and offensive.
But simply smear anyone you disagree with as a liar and you’re a decent reasonable person… and not a jack@ss?
What an interesting worldview. You must have had some really odd debate classes growing up. Facts, evidence, and research were off limits, while slander, attacking your opponents, and name-calling were entirely appropriate.
That’s a bit different from the debate classes where I was taught. Where exactly was this considered “rational debate”?
PK
Well apparently The big idiot himself (Limbaugh) has weighed in and said and said that “they have filled the kid’s head with lies just as they did with some soldiers”. I guess the kids are phoney too!
I think there should be a competition titled “How low can they sink”. My guess is that by the time this is through, there will be demands to have the family prosecuted and jailed for welfare fraud and congress should pass a resolution to condemn the kids. Although I am sure there must be something lower than this, I just can’t think of it.
Bombadil
This is why we should all make a contribution to the Sense of Humor Deficiency Relief Fund.
jenniebee
There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.
— Winston Churchill, 1943
I’ll tell you one thing that liberals need to get their heads, and their messages around, and that’s that S-CHIP and its fellows – fellows like public education, WIC, Head Start and the like – are not something the government should take up out of charity, or out of a sense of moral correctness, or even because the ethical obligations of a society founded on the principle of equality for all its citizens must necessarily include the conveyance of equality of opportunity for its youngest citizens. We should be taking care of children with public monies because improvements in the health and education of our nation’s children are sound investments in our nation’s future.
As we have expanded public education in this country, our economy and national wealth have expanded in kind. When our nation took strides to eradicate childhood diseases, such as polio, the reward we gained was a larger pool of healthy, active, productive adults. If you want a nation of illiterate manual laborers, nothing is simpler to have it come about than to stop making an investment in public education. If you want a nation of high child mortality and sickly adults, all you must do is nothing whatsoever to look after children.
This is not charity, though charity smiles on it. It is a sound investment in our nation’s future.
Tim F.
Honestly now, she drove past his house and quizzed a commercial tenant on his political beliefs. I do “research” so I think that I know what research looks like. That’s unsupported innuendo backed up with pointless stalking.
If you want to know what research looks like, try this:
Gosh, answering questions with facts doesn’t look hard at all. I wonder why Malkin and the rest of the loony right settled for innuendo?
Oh look, I answered my own question.
The Other Steve
Damnit, I think Patrick Carroll bravely ran away from the debate again.
Reich Winger's NightMare
jenniebee Says:
This is not charity, though charity smiles on it. It is a sound investment in our nation’s future.
October 9th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Nail, meet hammer.
Zuzu
Psycheout Says:
This is what the left always does: they hide behind “victims” so that others cannot criticize them, whether it’s 9/11 widows or “poor” children.
If the father in this family would get a real job and abandon his silly woodworking hobby, perhaps he could afford to actually take care of his responsibilities that come with having a family. The answer is not yet another government teat.
The left just love to enslave people, though don’t they? Yet it’s good honest hardworking conservatives who are teh eeevil. What a bunch of “poverty” pimps.
——————————————
Well, criticizing the politics of 9/11 widows is one thing. Calling them harpies and accusing them of rejoicing in their husbands’ deaths is another.
This child never claimed to be “poor,” despite the wingnuts’ best efforts to prop up that particular strawman. He said the SCHIP program helped families like his afford health insurance, which is absolutely true. If you’d done your research you’d know the program is specifically aimed at families who are above the federal poverty level.
Oh yes, if only the father had been prescient enough to know his children would be in an accident someday, and not tried to start a small business, but instead got a cubicle job someplace…in fact, why the hell didn’t it occur to him to go to law school before he got married? Good Lord, what was he thinking?
Interesting that you don’t mind demonizing good honest hardworking people who don’t support your agenda. But it isn’t conservatives who are eeeevil, it’s wingnuts who can’t make an honest case for their position and so resort to stalking children.
Dewlso
Malkin is a snake. Like most neocons you need to be aware of them and their aggressive natures. This neocon talking head has no journalistic integrity. She is the type of person who waits for tragedy to strike, in which someone loses a loved one, and sticks a camera and microphone in some grieving widow’s face to ask what they are feeling. She is scum. I hope she dont mind if people start scoping out her place so they can report back how rich and luxurious her lifestyle is. One can only hope that she becomes a victim of some crazed serial rapist, and then someone sticks a camera in her face and asks “How do you feel?” She is not a journalist she is a propagandist and a communist.
Zuzu
John Cole says: But that is different, according to wingnut logic, because these parents opted to put their kids in the spotlight. And since we all know good parents never subject your kids to crazies, the right wingers have taken it upon themselves to be sociopathic crazies to prove their point.
————————————————–
A good point. And a good send-up here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/9/124738/627
Zuzu
So Lush thinks the Dems “filled this kid’s head with lies,” eh? Exactly what lies are contained in this statement?
John Spragge
Just one point: Dan Riehl (and several people posting here), having apparently skipped consequentialist logic, decided that Mr. Frost should not have started his own business but instead have gotten a “crappy” job with benefits. Follow the logic, guys: if people didn’t start businesses, then nobody would have any job, with or without benefits, “crappy” or not. And starting a business requires the courage to deal with uncertainty. The way our system works, most businesses fail, or at best struggle for years. If not for the entrepreneurs who accept those odds, we would have either no jobs or else the Soviet economy. So this “start a business, hit a patch of black ice and your kid dies” strikes at the two basic strengths of the Western culture: family solidarity and individual enterprise and risk-taking courage.
Chris Johnson
I’ve started my own business, and I’m still nervous all the time that the business will magically dry up. I bust my butt for people and that’s good. I don’t have a family anymore- I was married and my wife flipped out, took her kid (from a previous, unwed relationship) and left, on the one hand certain I was going to turn on her and do her harm, on the other hand unable to handle the committment I had to put into the business- the time and energy and attention- even though that was pitifully small at the time compared to what was NEEDED.
(sorry, John, on the caps again…)
YOU DO NOT NEED HELP TO BE UNCERTAIN AND SCARED AS A SMALL BUSINESSMAN AND ENTREPRENEUR. Jobs, especially local jobs, so often come from small business, and a staggering majority of small businesses FAIL.
If you weight everything against the people who choose to start businesses (or can’t help doing it because they’re too entreprenurial in character) the only thing you’re doing is forcing the SMART ones NOT to start the businesses. Only the stupid ones will still be dumb enough to try (yeah, I resemble that remark).
If you weight everything towards corporations completely invested in bolstering the economy of China and Taiwan, the smart ones will REFUSE to play your twisted game and they’ll just get good at applying for management jobs at companies run out of China and Taiwan.
I have NO problem with globalization- the majority of my business is in fact overseas- a lot of UK, a lot of Sweden, etc.
What I have a problem with is the idea that it helps the country when you get rid of welfare state conditions that actually make it a more safe gamble to TRY and build American businesses. To my mind things like health care, water supply, police and fire departments, road maintenance, are things that need to be taken care of by the government so I don’t have to deal with them and they’ll still be there- in some condition- when I need them. If I need special fancy water, like distilled water, I’ll produce that myself. If I need liposuction (ha! I starve!) for vanity purposes, or a nose job, I’d better find a cosmetic surgeon and save my pennies. If I am hit by a truck, I don’t want to hear about how I should have made the extra effort to come up with a private insurance policy that would cover it…
My car got hit with _bricks_ from a falling chimney that was struck by lightning. I had to pay for a new windshield out of my own pocket and juggle home and business bank accounts to have enough money liquid that I could do it at all. There was private insurance from the chimney owner’s house, on my car, none of it paid anything- ‘act of god’. I don’t buy that the most productive use of my time and energy is fighting with private insurers right when I already have enough serious problems happening.
I don’t care if God smites me (or my car), but I want backup that will NOT try to say ‘oh, dude, God smote you, sux to be you’. A small business owner has to find trustworthy suppliers that won’t dick him over. That can mean government aid- and sure as hell it ought to mean government health, just as it means government police, government roads… even government IRS agents. Can you imagine what it would be like if they farmed THAT out to the Malkins of the world? Terry Pratchett imagined it- called it ‘tax farming’. Tax farming means you go see people and explain to them they owe more taxes, and if they say no, you hit them…
Many things don’t really belong in the private sector to be milked for competitive profits. Sometimes you have to look at societal benefits.
EL
I wrote
Psycheout replied
Let us count lapses in logic:
1. Where did I say that I wanted to use authoritarian means to make cigarettes expensive? Do you consider any tax “authoritarian”? How about taxes used to spy on Americans?
2. What does the minimum wage have to with the price of cigarettes?
3. If people had to pay the REAL costs of cigarettes in lost productivity, health expenses, second hand smoke health expenses, etc. cigarettes would be incredibly expensive.
Patrick Carroll
My God man! Running away from an argument? On an anonymous thread on an anonymous medium? Jesus! Spare me!
I have other things to do (earn an actual living, pay for health insurance, etc.), so I thought I’d leave a farewell and move on. Trust a 40+ year old leftist know-nothing eunuch living in his parents’ basement to see that as running away.
(How am I doing at your debating style, guys?)
Captain Magic
Michelle Malkin isn’t a “Citizen journalist”-she’s an aggregator of assholes.
TenguPhule
Patrick Carroll’s Health Care Plan, everyone.
Badump-bump-crash!
Apprentice to Darth Holden
The influx of freeper types here in this comments area only reinforces what John has been talking about lately.
You people are really your own worst enemies.
Dr Zen
It remains my firm belief that “fuck you, Jack, I’ve got mine”, while it does make a satisfying personal political philosophy, is a terrible basis for running a country. I like living in a welfare state, and you would too, even if you had to pay taxes for it. Hell, you might even start thinking there’s more to life than the dollars in your pocket. As for Malkin, let’s hope she never has to make a living by her wits or has to live in the world she wants. She’d hate it because the crackers would run her out before she had time even to get the words “anchor baby” out of her mouth.
J. A. Baker
ARRGH. I’m tired of Walter Reed being used as part of a “Every single solitary thing gubmint touches turns to shit” argument. Fact is, the facilities management at Walter Reed was turned over to IAP Worldwide Services – A PRIVATE CONTRACTOR. And not just any private contractor – these were the same guys who got a contract to deliver ice to Katrina victims, and SENT IT EVERYWHERE BUT NEW ORLEANS.
So please, stop this “Everything gubmint does is 100000000000000000000000000000% wrong, and everything private enterprise is 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000% right” bullshit. Private enterprise is no angel, either.
EGB's Smelly Sox
Well, I’m a real European, Mr Caroll, and no-one who has actually grown up in Europe ever calls the healthcare “socilized” (An almost exclusively American term) unless they are naive or being deliberately mendatious. So I call bullshit on the above assertion, especially given that in my experience the health service for all it’s faults, actually delivers pretty well in my experience.